The organisers of a weekly university night faced a huge backlash from students after promoting a serial killer themed Halloween event with photos of Jeffrey Dahmer and other convicted murderers.
Crisis - which runs a student night every Wednesday at Rock City nightclub in Nottingham - have been forced to apologise, after announcing the Halloween event on its Instagram page on Friday.
The initial poster advertised the night, called 'All Frighter - Serial Killers', using mugshots of five serial killers: Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Rose West, John Wayne Gacy and Richard Ramirez.
It immediately attracted backlash, with one person writing below: "I think this is a bit tone-deaf if I'm honest."
Within 16 hours the event poster was taken down, The Daily Mail reports
A student employed to promote Crisis nights posted an open letter explaining her issues with the theme.
She said: "Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer were both known for hunting their victims in night clubs... so it is absurd to me why we would have students dressed up as these people, inside a nightclub.
“These people are not celebrities whom we can make a ‘theme’ out of – they are real people who raped, tortured and murdered people’s sons and daughters – with their families still alive and still feeling the effects today.”
The student's post garnered more than 990 likes.
She also said she had been left in "total disbelief that in 2022 a nightclub run for young adults and students would encourage the behaviour to dress up [in] such controversial costumes" and rang her Crisis manager up immediately to "voice her concern" when she saw the poster.
Following her post, Crisis released a public statement saying that "after consideration, [they] realised this was an upsetting and triggering concept".
They added: "We would like to unreservedly apologise to anyone we have offended or caused distress to."
The statement also said that neither Rock City or the Student Union was involved in choosing the theme.
The event will go ahead but now with a general Halloween theme, a Crisis spokesman confirmed.
Despite the backlash tickets for the event have already sold out.
Crisis - held every Wednesday - describes itself as the biggest student night in the UK.
