Researcher sued for naughty Acrobat install

A researcher who had promised to install Acrobat Reader on a female student's computer showed her pornographic images instead, the Federal Court has heard.

The case of Huang v University of New South Wales (UNSW) was first introduced in April 2005, but has been prolonged by issues with unavailable witnesses and "unreliable" evidence since.

On 4 March, it appeared before Justice Arthur Robert Emmett of the Federal Court in relation to obtaining evidence from a witness who had moved overseas.

The incident in question took place in late 2001, when Hong Cui Huang was a postgraduate student at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

Court documents indicate that she approached PhD researchers on campus, seeking help to download software that would enable her to read research documents.

According to Huang, two researchers did not know how to install Acrobat Reader and directed her to Fuchun Xiao, who was also connected to the university but was outside the office at the time.

Xiao allegedly agreed to help her install the software. But when he accessed the Internet on her computer, he "was very rude and intentionally showed her unwelcome pictures on the computer screen," the Court heard.

Huang sought damages from Xiao and UNSW for alleged sexual harassment. Xiao has denied the allegations.

The case was due to reappear before the Federal Magistrates Court on 29 March 2010. Huang applied in February to postpone the hearing, but was unsuccessful.