Professor Arday told University of Cambridge professor he ‘couldn’t go on’, hours before his death

‘He was being subjected to relentless scrutiny’

The former University of Cambridge professor was pronounced dead Friday, after emergency services were called to Daley Thompson Way in Battersea.

Emergency services responded just after 3pm on Friday, following reports that inside a property a man had been found unresponsive.

Professor Arday resigned last week after accusations of plagiarism and inconsistencies in statements about his career and achievements.

His death is now being treated as unexpected, the Metropolitan Police said, while it is not believed to be suspicious.

His friend, a University of Cambridge professor, spoke to him hours before he died

Speaking to the BBC, Cambridge University professor and director of the Autism Research Centre, Simon Baron-Cohen, said that he spoke to Prof Arday on Friday morning.

“He was being subjected to relentless scrutiny, including ridicule, discrediting absolutely every detail of his life, and he wasn’t coping with the loss of his career, the loss of his reputation, and he felt he couldn’t go on”, Baron-Cohen told Radio 4’s Today programme.

Professor Baron-Cohen added that Professor Arday “used those words in voice notes.”

“At the heart of all of this was a man who’d been diagnosed in childhood with disabilities that included autism and language delay and learning differences.”

“He was a vulnerable child, a vulnerable teenager, and a vulnerable adult, so he needed and deserved safeguarding and support and reasonable adjustment every step of the way”, Baron-Cohen added.

According to Baron-Cohen, Prof Arday was a “kind and gentle” man who had been “bombarded by every media outlet” and used as a “lightning rod” to examine diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies.

Arday, a professor of sociology of education who became Cambridge’s youngest black professor in 2023, quit following a series of media reports alleging he plagiarised his PhD thesis and other research.

Prof Arday was cleared of wrongdoing following an investigation at Liverpool John Moores University, which is where his PhD thesis was completed.