THE new Oxford professor of poetry is facing high-profile demands for her resignation after it emerged that she alerted journalists to sexual allegations against her main rival during her campaign for the post.

Ruth Padel had previously denied mentioning the claims of sexual harassment against Derek Walcott, the St Lucia-born Nobel laureate. She said she had “nothing to do with any behind-doors operation”.

It has now emerged, however, that Padel sent e-mails to at least two newspapers, drawing attention to Walcott’s past. He was her strongest challenger for the 300-year-old post. Days later, the harassment allegations appeared in the press and Walcott withdrew.

Some of those who once backed Padel, including Lord Bragg, the broadcaster, and Sir Jeremy Isaacs, former chief executive of Channel 4, have now abandoned her.

Bragg, a Labour peer, who studied at Wadham College, Oxford, said: “Even her mentioning Walcott’s past in advance of the election was disgraceful. She should now stand down from the post. A shame, but there it is.” Isaacs said: “She should consider her position. I’m very upset to learn this.”

Even one of Padel’s own campaign managers, Oswyn Murray, a retired Balliol College don, condemned her e-mails. He said: “I was not aware Ruth had alerted any journalists. In fact we decided not to mention anything about [Walcott’s] past. She should not have done that, but life is full of maverick poets.”

A C Grayling, professor of philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London, and a former Oxford lecturer who initially backed Padel’s campaign, said: “I’m shockingly disappointed that she tipped off people about Walcott’s past. Now all the issues should be examined by the authorities at Oxford. This is not all done and dusted simply because there has been a vote already.”

The Walcott row has already sparked bitter exchanges in literary circles. One supporter of Padel has criticised a “streak of misogyny” in her opponents; meanwhile, Walcott’s side has attacked a “vicious literary London coterie” around Padel.

In the early 1980s Walcott had to apologise after a claim of sexual harassment was made against him at Harvard. In the mid-1990s he settled another allegation, this time at Boston University, out of court.

The e-mails sent by Padel in April tipped off journalists to this record. She wrote: “Some [of my] supporters add that what he does for students can be found in a book called The Lecherous Professor, reporting one of his two recorded cases of sexual harassment and that Obama is rumoured to have turned him down for his inauguration poem because of the sexual record. But I don’t think that’s fair.”

The e-mail also says: “The harassment is all documented on the web.”

A few days after Padel sent her e-mails, the subject surfaced in public. An article appeared in The Independent, written by John Walsh, an old friend of Padel’s, drawing attention to the “troubling . . . shadows of sexual harassment allegations that swirled around [Walcott]”. Other newspapers also reported it.

Shortly afterwards, the relevant pages from The Lecherous Professor were sent anonymously to dozens of voters in Oxford, prompting Walcott, 79, to withdraw in the face of what he called a “low and degrading attempt at character assassination”.

The day after The Sunday Times reported the anonymous packages, Padel said: “I deeply admire [Walcott’s] work and dissociate myself completely from any clandestine operations against his candidature. Neither [my campaign managers] nor I mentioned Walcott’s harassment record and had nothing to do with any behind-doors operation.”

Padel, a classicist who taught Greek at Oxford before turning to poetry, said this weekend she regretted alerting journalists to Walcott’s record.

She said: “I knew nothing of any anonymous mailings and would not have wished John Walsh’s article to be published.

“I was contacted by an Oxford student, who believed Mr Walcott’s relations with female students at universities was relevant to her university’s election of a professor.

“Because her concern seemed to be a part of the whole picture, I communicated it to two journalists. I would not have done so had I known of the anonymous mailing, or of any journalist intending to highlight this issue on its own.”

Padel, whose first book of poetry was called Alibi, added: “It would be so much less wounding to everyone concerned, it needs to rest . . . if you can find it in your heart.”

Not all Padel’s supporters have deserted her. Yesterday the radio presenter Libby Purves said: “She has not herself spread the dossier. She was a cracking candidate. She was the best. She will give very good lectures.”

Even one Walcott supporter said the saga should now end. John Carey, an emeritus professor of English at Oxford, said no purpose would be served by rerunning the contest beyond hurting Padel.

“I don’t think there is any chance of Walcott standing again. So it would be very insulting to Padel, whatever she has done, to say vote again.”

A spokeswoman for Oxford University said: “It is the type of allegation which some academics might want to look at.

“There can be no official investigation as there is no official complaint. If there is, it would need to be discussed with the vice-chancellor.”

WHAT SHE SAID PUBLICLY
‘Neither they [my campaign managers] nor I mentioned Walcott’s harassment record and had nothing to do with any behind-doors operation’

Ruth Padel, May 12, 2009

WHAT SHE SAID PRIVATELY
‘What he [Walcott] actually does can be found in a book called The Lecherous Professor, reporting one of his two recorded cases of sexual harassment’

E-mail to journalists, April 2009

Times Recommends

• The 100 Best Books of the Decade
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• The conversation: James Ellroy