A former University of Canberra law professor accused of sex offences against six female students had threatened to report them for alleged plagiarism, court documents reveal.
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Arthur Marshall Hoyle, 66, has pleaded not guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court to 12 counts of committing acts of indecency and two charges of sexual intercourse without consent.
It's alleged Hoyle committed the offences against the students in his office over several weeks in April last year after he emailed each of the women and requested they meet with him to discuss an assignment.
The accused, formerly of Lyons, appeared in court briefly on Monday, when he was committed to stand trial on the allegations in the ACT Supreme Court.
A police statement of facts said Hoyle had raised suspicions students were buying anonymously-written essays online with a senior staff member at the university, who had warned him against interfering with any probe into alleged academic misconduct.
Soon after, Hoyle allegedly met with one of his students and told her the university's electronic plagiarism detection program had showed she visited several websites as she worked on her essay, including one called "sexy internet".
Hoyle showed her a computer presentation, which featured the woman's student identification photograph and pornographic images allegedly obtained from sites he claimed she'd visited, court documents stated.
The woman began to cry before Hoyle allegedly stroked her hands and told her she could either report her behaviour to police or do something to "make it go away", as he rubbed his hands up and down her thighs.
A few days later, another female student went to the defendant's office to talk about her score on the university's plagiarism detection system.
Hoyle was alleged to have asked the student, "What can we do?", before he touched her inappropriately and kissed her.
"If you kiss me I'll pass you and we can forget about the ... score," he allegedly said.
Court documents said the woman left and later received an email from Hoyle saying he wouldn't take any further action over her assignment.
When he allegedly met with the third student, Hoyle accused her of plagiarism and said if he reported her she could be banned from university for a year.
The woman grew upset and Hoyle allegedly said, "You can suggest something to me. What would you suggest? If you suggest something to me, I don't have to write the report."
He then touched her inappropriately and tried to kiss her before she left, court documents said.
Hoyle is alleged to have set up a second meeting with the same student in his office a few days later, when he again said it was his choice to report her for academic misconduct and asked if she could "suggest anything" about what they could "do instead".
The student was confused, court documents said, and too frightened to say anything in case Hoyle failed her or had her thrown out of university, as he touched her inappropriately, kissed her and then raped her twice.
The defendant is alleged to have indecently assaulted three more female students in his office in separate incidents within days after he raised similar concerns over their plagiarism detection system scores.
Hoyle was charged after the university contacted police and officers seized a laptop computer and USB drive from his university office in July last year.
Magistrate Bernadette Boss committed Hoyle to stand trial in the higher court, where the matter has been listed for directions later this month.
Hoyle was suspended without pay and later sacked for alleged serious misconduct following reports from students.
The university said at the time any allegation of inappropriate behaviour was taken very seriously and the institution's paramount consideration was the welfare and safety of students.
