Found dead at his home the Cambridge professor who invented a fake life

For years he was an academic superstar, a prodigy. But after rumors that what he boasted of was a lie came to light, he suddenly became a pariah, an outcast. On Friday, Jason Arday, 41, was found dead at his home in circumstances that have not yet been clarified. Everything suggests he committed suicide.

Arday had gone down in history as the first black and young professor to teach at the prestigious and elitist University of Cambridge. A personal and academic milestone. But, as if that were not enough, his biography was full of achievements: he had not spoken until he was 11 years old, he was autistic, and he had not learned to read or write until he was 18 years old. That, with these precedents, a young Arday had reached university, had done a doctorate, and had been admitted as a professor at Cambridge seemed an incredible story of personal overcoming. But there was more, much more: he had run 30 marathons in 35 days, he had raised 5 million pounds for charitable causes... All this while overcoming the racism and classism of the Cambridge academic world.

The problems began when he was accused of plagiarizing a doctoral thesis. Then a case began to unfold where nothing seemed to add up. The universities where he claimed to have worked did not know him, the charities for which he claimed to have raised funds knew nothing about him, the alleged racist attacks he had suffered were not reported to the police... When everything hit the press, the scandal was monumental, with dozens of academics accusing Cambridge of wokism, of having hired Arday not because he was good as a professor, but simply because he was black, which allowed the institution to present itself as a modern university.

Finally, the pressure was so great that Arday, married and father of two, ended up resigning, amidst a scandal that continues at the university, which has opened an investigation to clarify how the quality controls failed and no one saw that his curriculum was full of suspicions, nor did anything when his students accused him of poor teaching quality. Days after his resignation, however, death has arrived in circumstances that are still unclear.

In a statement, Arday's family said on Friday that he "was the victim of a campaign of continued abuse for more than three years since his appointment at Cambridge by those who moved heaven and earth in their attempt to discredit him. This disinformation campaign was too much for Jason, a kind man who always wanted the best from everyone".