What ex-Cambridge Professor Jason Arday told friend in voice notes hours before death

Former University of Cambridge professor Jason Arday told a friend he felt he “couldn’t go on” in a final voice note sent just hours before he died

Former University of Cambridge professor Jason Arday, who had resigned amid a plagiarism controversy, has been found dead at a property on Daley Thompson Way in Battersea, London. According to Daily Star, emergency services were called to the scene just after 3pm on Friday.

The Metropolitan Police said his death is being treated as unexpected but not suspicious, with no further details released on the circumstances. Cambridge professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Arday had sent voice notes hours before his death, in which he said he “couldn’t go on.”

Sir Simon told Radio 4’s Today programme: “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. He used those words in voice notes.

Arday had previously made headlines as the youngest Black professor at Cambridge before the university launched an investigation into his academic work. Tributes have continued to pour in from colleagues and members of the academic community following news of his death.