Don't worry Monkia, pm133 was clearly referring to me. I don't see what is so appalling about my actions given that everything I spread was both true and backed by evidence. Also, rate my professors is a great tool - no one needs to take it was the gospel truth, but as a sign for others to dig deeper. From what I see, its working! If anything, pm133's dismissing of the rest of my story to focus on online review systems is appalling or he/she lacks reading comprehension.

Anyways, back to the main point. I think its best that YOU don't regret your decisions, whatever they may be. If deleting your account here works and starting over, then please do. Its your life and you have to take charge and stop listening to naysayers (especially strangers online, myself included!). Now, I certainly do not regret my decisions, and I am glad that my supervisor is being held accountable for his bad behaviour. I should add that I have detailed evidence (emails) that the graduate committee took seriously, so its not one person's word against another. I have a good job now out of academia and the last time I ran into my supervisor in the uni he high tailed it, which was very satisfying. Professors are not infallible and we must not let them treat us badly.

However, for this to work (without taking the uni to court - this is unlike to work due to cost issue, who is pm133 kidding? They'll just drag it out till you have no money to spare/ your pro bono lawyer give up), you have to be a resonably well-liked person, and your supervisor less so (i.e gather allies). If you hide in the lab, that does make it harder. At the end of the day whether you like it or not, its politics and if you want justice, you have to assess if this is a game you can win.

Also, this was in Australia if it helps anyone! PM me for details

Unlike the previous posters, I don't think its good to move on without doing your best to report him - you will likely regret it in the future. Also, we need more people reporting bad behaviour to increase accountability.

My supervisor too was awful - I had a bad accident (one of those horrible life changing kinds) and couldn't work on my thesis early 2018, ran out of stipend in the next half of the year and had to work part time to support myself. Being a prick, he tried to make me quit my part time employment to work on the thesis full-time in a rather nasty message, because he was upset at my lack of progress! As if my accident wasn't enough. I escalated this to the chair of my committee, director of graduate studies and the head of department - this resulted in him being banned from communicating with me. What I did right: collected and detailed evidence, followed the chain of command to complain, and made sure everyone knew what was going on (I told all the students I could find within the department, so that his bad reputation would spread). I was lucky that my department was willing to take action on my behalf, but that whisper campaign is what is effectively preventing any more students from joining his lab. I've also posted some honest reviews on ratemyprofessors which has already scared away 1 prospective student (it pops up when my supervisor's name is googled, highly effective!). I also made sure that EVERYONE in my department knew of my accident and bad treatment from my supervisor, so someone from an adjacent lab would tell any prospective student of his to contact me for details. None ended up joining :)

TL;DR start a whisper campaign about his bad behavior (exagerrate it if you must) and leave bad reviews online - most prospective students will google a professor and if anything bad pops out, at least they will start to ask questions before joining the lab.

Hope that helps!