A lesbian student in America claimed she was being targeted with anti-gay hate mail — but a secret camera revealed that she was planting the notes herself.
Alexandra Pennell, 19, has now been expelled by her University and she faces criminal charges for faking the notes and lying to the police.
She had claimed the messages of hate were being slipped into her room and scrawled on a board on the door of her dormitory room at Central Connecticut State University by an unknown bully.
Rally
Campus authorities took the matter seriously, and called in the police. Hundreds of students attended an anti-hate rally, at which Miss Pennell spoke.
Authorities set up a secret camera to catch the culprit, but it was suspiciously turned off at key moments.
A second camera was installed – without Miss Pennell’s knowledge – and this time it caught her sliding one of the notes under her own door.
Fabricating
She has since confessed to planting all of the notes, but pleads not guilty to fabricating evidence, lying to police and filing a false police report.
She says she planted the notes to get the attention of her roommate.
She has been expelled from her University and barred from attending any school in the Connecticut state university system for five years.
Consequences
University spokesman Mark McLaughlin said the university remains proud of the “campus community’s response to what we believed was an act of bias, and we reaffirm now what was said then: acts of bias and hate will not be tolerated at CCSU.”
He added: “While we are confident that the perpetrator has been identified, we are nonetheless saddened by the student’s actions, which are likely to bring serious consequences to her.”