A former defendant in the defamation suit launched by writer Steven Galloway has publicly apologized.

Chelsea Rooney was one of several women who, Steven Galloway alleges, made defamatory statements about him after he was accused of sexual assault and then fired from his role at the University of British Columbia in 2016.

Rooney, a former student of Galloway’s at UBC, released a public apology to him on Oct. 3. In the 11-paragraph apology posted online, Rooney apologizes for her role in UBC’s initial investigation into the allegations, for which she solicited and collected complaints from others to bolster the allegations made by the woman known in court proceedings as A.B.

“My position at the time was that an allegation was all that a person should require to come to the conclusion that an accused person was guilty, and I accused those who disagreed with this of doing harm to survivors,” the apology says. “Everyone deserves fairness, including Mr. Galloway, who was the subject of very serious allegations. I recognize that my involvement in the UBC investigation was unfair to Mr. Galloway and has contributed to the harm he has suffered. I am sorry for that.”

The defamation trial began Monday in B.C. Supreme Court against four defendants: Mandi Gray, Dana Kagis, Glynnis Kirchmeier, and A.B., the woman who initially accused him of sexual assault, the Globe and Mail reported on Oct. 5. Rooney had been named as one of the defendants in the case, but the Globe reported that she is one of six defendants who have recently settled out of court.

A.B. brought forward allegations of sexual assault against Galloway to UBC in November 2015. Galloway was suspended with pay for 60 days while the university looked into the allegations. He was fired in June 2016 from his role as chair of the UBC creative writing department after an internal investigation. He was never charged in the matter.

The allegations were widely discussed in the literary community, where they proved divisive. Some authors signed an open letter in 2016 in support of Galloway’s right to fair and due process under the heading UBC Accountable; a counter letter subsequently circulated online and signed by different authors was associated in the ensuing online conversations with the hashtag #ubcunaccountable.

Former B.C. Supreme Court Justice Mary Boyd, who conducted UBC’s internal investigation into the allegations in 2016, determined that A.B.’s claims of sexual assault could not be substantiated. The one complaint that stuck, the Walrus reported in 2016, was that Galloway had an inappropriate relationship with a middle-aged student.