Uni professor's secret porn star double life as 'Old Nick'

16 March 2016

University professor Nicholas Goddard had two jobs. At night, the 61-year-old starred as "Old Nick" in a number of pornographic films. By day, he worked as an experienced chemical engineer and academic at the University of Manchester.

When not in class, the professor cavorted with women 40 years his junior at times wearing nothing more than a gold watch.

He has been appearing in films alongside "Teen Monique" and "Blonde Lexi".

Despite working both jobs for nearly 10 years, "Old Nick" has only been recently identified as professor Goddard. Some reports say in the last few days he has been suspended by the university.

When approached, Goddard said: "What I do in my private life is my business and not the university's. I haven't told anyone there."

He added that he didn't know what parents or students would think, but that he for one certainly would not care if his children were being taught by a porn star.

He has said that he got into the acting industry to relieve the stress of his divorce but his family were unaware of his second job.

He said he had recently stopped working in the film industry anyway.

Goddard felt there has been hypocrisy with people watching porn and then complaining about those who act in it.

He claimed that this was especially so as he knew that on weekends and evenings 75 per cent of web traffic on Manchester University's server was accessing porn.

If an investigation is done, perhaps Goddard will rely on academic freedom. He may argue that a university is a liberal community and that academic freedom extends not only to people challenging each other in debate, but perhaps also allowing them the freedom to a challenging liberal lifestyle in the evenings.

Academic freedom has often been cited in New Zealand, although not in cases as salacious as Goddard's.

Readers may remember a case brought some time ago by the associate professor of economics and finance at Victoria University, Dr Lally.

He had been a professor at Victoria University for 25 years when, in 2005 he got into difficulty by challenging the university's disciplinary processes.

Lally was involved in two disciplinary processes. In one as a support person for a colleague, in the other defending himself.

In both processes, Lally copied emails linked to disciplinary matters to about 200 people in his address book.

The university repeatedly instructed him not to, but Lally continued to do so until events culminated with him being issued a final warning.

The university said his actions were not done in good faith and were intended to bring the university into disrepute.

Lally challenged the final warning and took his case to the Employment Relations Authority. He argued, among other things, that the initial instruction not to copy in the wide group of people was not lawful as it curtailed his academic freedom.

The university argued that academic freedom did not give Lally uninhibited license to act as he did, and that the purpose of academic freedom was to allow an academic to state their views in areas where their expertise is over and above that of the public.

The Authority found that the final warning was unjustified on procedural grounds, but did not accept Lally's argument about academic freedom.

While Lally did not claim compensation, the Authority said if he had they would have reduced the compensation by 100 per cent for contributory conduct.

How would Goddard fare in New Zealand? The university could no doubt make out a case that his starring as "Old Nick" in a number of adult films brings the university into disrepute.

Goddard may claim that he was exercising his academic freedom, but Lally's example would suggest that academic freedom has its limits.

Goddard's academic expertise is in chemical engineering and not remotely connected to the pornographic world. For this reason a defence of academic freedom is unlikely to save Goddard.

Would readers accept his acting as "Old Nick" while a university professor? Students are a robust breed, but has Goddard pushed boundaries too far?