Circled: The hole in one of Newnham student's condoms.
Saboteurs are piercing holes through condoms provided by CUSU, The Tab can exclusively reveal.
The frightening attacks were discovered after a Newnham third-year found a hole in a condom she had used with her boyfriend. The couple checked the remaining condoms in the box and found that three out of six had been pierced with a fine needle.
Speaking anonymously, the student told The Tab “I only noticed the hole when I threw the condom wrapper away. You could actually see day-light through it.
“Who the hell would do such a thing? And how would they feel if their actions led to someone contracting HIV? It doesn't bear thinking about.”
In each condom the hole is very small, the size of a normal pin, making it hard to notice in the dark. Our reporter conducted an experiment with one of the condoms, and found water went straight through it.
Punctured: We test one of the sabotaged condoms found by a Newnham student.
The condoms had been obtained from Newnham's Welfare Officer, who bought them from CUSU just an hour earlier.
Negligence
Negligence by CUSU welfare officers was exposed after a Tab reporter accessed CUSU’s condom supply. Our reporter easily gained entry to the unlocked Archive cupboard, where condoms are kept in unsealed boxes, and was able to photograph himself piercing a condom with a safety pin. The condom was then disposed of.
Our reporter pierces a condom in CUSU's Archive cupboard.
Condoms are left unprotected in JCRs and porter’s lodges in at least 20 Cambridge colleges, meaning that saboteurs could have attacked condom supplies elsewhere.
This is not the first time condoms have been sabotaged at the University. Three years ago, the King’s College introduced secure and free condom vending machines after several reports of damaged condoms.
Culprits
The allegations have led to outrage among some students who blame Christian faith groups.
One commented: "This is the work of the Christian Union for sure. They are a bunch of anti-sex freaks who will do anything to get their message across. They ought to be banned in Cambridge."
But Cambridge Pro-Life Society President Sam Corio condemned the sabotage of condoms. She told The Tab: "Sabotaged condoms expose their users to life-threatening STIs and, because they increase the probability of unplanned pregnancies, potentially contribute to the loss of unborn human lives."
Unsealed boxes of condoms in the CUSU Archive cupboard, which is left unlocked.
Despite The Tab's reporter showing how easily the condoms could be sabotaged, CUSU have blamed Durex.
CUSU President Tom Chigbo, 21, claimed the condoms could have been from a faulty manufacturing batch, but makers Durex deny this.
Chigbo said: 'We received a faulty box from our suppliers about which we have already complained in the strongest terms.
''We are investigating this as a matter of urgency, and working with the suppliers and manufacturers of the condoms to address the fault in the condoms we received.
''At this point there is no reason to believe that there has been any sabotage.''
A spokeswoman for Durex said they were confident the condoms left the factory in ''perfect condition''.
She said: ''We understand from Cambridge University Students Union that 2-3 individual condom foils in a box of 144 have potentially been damaged.
We are confident that these condoms will have left the factory in perfect condition.''
Thanks, I just came up with a new type of roulette.
This is the work of the Christian Union for sure. They are a bunch of anti-sex freaks who will do anything to get their message accross. They ought to be banned in Cambridge.
Absolute rubbish!! One of the most fundamental principles in christianity is the sanctity of life. To even suggest that christians would do this shows how narrow-minded and unbelievably stupid people can be!!
Ha ha brilliant it consistently amazes me how stupid Cambridge students can be…anyone who can say this was the work of the Christian Union has clearly got them mixed up with some kind of Middle-Eastern terrorist cell common mistake. The easy way to remember is that Al Qaeda blow people up, the Christian Union is often found making tea. Utterly moronic…
It could actually be Catholics… they don't believe in contraception. Just saying.
Clearly there are some incredibly selfish and very stupid people around.
Bring back hanging!
a similar thing happened in catz two years ago so they now have them for a small price from a vending machine – they should enforce this in all colleges
Pro-life societys in Cambridge?
I thought this place was meant to be the home of thought?
I blame the CUSU Women's Officer
It saddens us that you think that this would be the work of Christians. Christians aren't anti-sex they just believe that it should be enjoyed within the context of marriage. Christians also practice and preach a message of love to all people and would not act to put people at risk of serious disease or pregnancy in a malicious way.
'christians' believe in whatever they feel like: the beauty of the bible is that you can interpret it to support any opinions or behaviours you like, whether that is ''loving all poeple'', itself a preposterous idea, committing genocide or destroying peoples lives by sabotaging condoms.
Please tell me where in the Bible anything is written that could possibly be twisted to justify piercing condoms. Please don't be so quick to condemn a faith you clearly do not understand. And why is loving all people such a preposterous idea?
[...] weaknesses in CUSU’s system for administering contraception after packs of condoms were found to have been pierced – something which Chigbo ludicrously claimed had been done by manufacturer [...]