St John's College of Cambridge University said Peter Linehan, the college's dean, created a Facebook account using the name Pedro Amigo to investigate allegations of an offensive remark on the social networking site, The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.

"As its dean of discipline, Dr. Linehan is required to investigate allegations of misbehavior by junior members of St John's College," a school spokeswoman said.

"In order to prevent such material cluttering up his academic information currently on the Internet, Dr. Linehan used a recognizable pseudonym, easily identifiable by students through his college e-mail, in order to investigate a complaint about an offensive remark reportedly published on Facebook," she said.

However, Linehan had said just hours before the spokeswoman's statement that allegations that he used Facebook to spy on students were "totally false."

Members of a group on Facebook, "St John's Has Banned Us Taking Wine To Hall," claimed Linehan had used his fake Facebook account to spy on members unhappy with campus policies.