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Australian man pleading guilty to rape was promoted at university job

Xinhua, January 23, 2017 Adjust font size:

An Australian University in North Queensland was under fire Monday for promoting a man, Douglas David Steel, who pleaded guilty to the digital rape of a woman in her Townsville home.

In September 2016, during court proceedings, James Cook University promoted the 33-year-old from project officer to an academic adviser at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Centre before he eventually resigned three months later.

"There has been a failure of our internal processes," Vice Chancellor of James Cook University Chris Cocklin said.

"Those who knew did not report the information to the appropriate staff."

The university's student association's president Edward Harriage has made comments, saying "the university should have picked this up sooner, it'll cast concern on the campus that shouldn't be here."

A wave of criticism on social media has also been aimed at the university with the site's Facebook page receiving hundreds of angry commenters.

Steel received a two-year jail sentence which was suspended after four months. Enditem