A heartbroken former teacher’s life was ruined by false allegations of sexual misconduct spread as he reveals his ‘nightmare’ court fight to clear his name.
Ian Fry, a former Worcester primary school teacher, has been vindicated following a five-year legal fight as he tries to rebuild his life, calling the experience an ‘indescribable horror’.
The 56-year-old said the legal battle, which concluded in March, left him a ‘broken man’ after false allegations by #MeToo campaigner Yasmin Agilah-Hood (now Yasmin Agliah) plunged his family into a ‘nightmare’, costing him his marriage and teaching career.
She has since accepted she was ‘entirely mistaken’ in an agreed statement in the High Court following Mr Fry’s defamation case against her.
ALLEGATIONS: Yasmin Agilah (formerly Yasmin Agilah-Hood) made false allegations (Image: Facebook)
The statement went on to say Agilah was ‘never in a position to know the truth of the other allegations’.
Mr Fry, who has 20 years of teaching experience, said the claims destroyed his personal and professional reputation and plunged him tens of thousands of pounds into debt.
‘Injustice against men’
When he ran out of funds, he represented himself and says the case shows the ‘injustice … faced by men against whom such false allegations are made’.
The father-of-three said: “To be falsely accused of the sort of conduct the defendant alleged is sickening, deeply wounding, traumatic, and hugely negatively impactful.”
Email to Northwick Manor
Mr Fry, now a university lecturer, was working at Northwick Manor Primary School in Worcester when Agilah, who had worked at his previous school, Malvern St James, shared false accusations of sexual misconduct with his new employer.
Although he had met her a couple of times, he said they had never spoken.
The false allegations [none of which pertain to Agliah directly[ were made in 2018, while he was working at Malvern St James, and became the subject of ‘salacious gossip’.
Reprographics assistant Agilah repeated the claims in an email to Northwick Manor in March 2021, accepting at the time she had ‘zero evidence’.
Although Northwick Manor took no action, his employment was not renewed at the end of his short-term contract.
Mr Fry had never met one of the women named by Agilah in her email. The woman concerned produced a statement to the court, denying she had ever told Agilah Mr Fry sent her ‘inappropriate flirtatious messages’.
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Nor had he been involved in any sexual misconduct with the other three women mentioned by his accuser.
The High Court case concluded at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on March 20.
Mr Fry said: “My marriage ended as a direct consequence of the intolerable pressures and stress I found myself under, and my children have undoubtedly suffered as a result of the extensive trauma to which I have been subjected.”
In the agreed statement, read out in court, it was said that Agliah-Hood, as she was then, had acted in ‘good faith’.
It read: “Ms Agilah also accepts that Mr Fry was never placed on “gardening leave” and did not seek to avoid an investigation at Malvern St James Girls’ School.
“Ms Agilah acknowledges the enormous hurt and suffering her allegations have caused Mr Fry and his family, for which Ms Agilah apologises unreservedly.”
We have approached Agilah for comment, Malvern St James and Northwick Manor.