CAMPBELL ACCUSED OF GROPING AT EMBASSY
Former premier of B.C. in police investigation
LONDON • Scotland Yard is investigating an allegation of sexual assault made against Gordon Campbell, the former Canadian high commissioner to Britain, by a female London embassy worker.
Campbell, who served as premier of British Columbia for more than a decade, has been reported to police, accused of groping a member of staff in 2013.
The complaint has been passed to the Foreign Office, which is facilitating discussions between the force and the Canadian authorities.
British government sources indicated that Canada may open its own inquiry and could waive Campbell’s diplomatic immunity if asked to do so.
A spokesman for Campbell said: “This complaint was transparently disclosed and became the subject of a full due diligence investigation at the time by the government of Canada and was found to be without merit.”
Campbell’s alleged victim, Judith Prins, accuses him of groping her before a meeting at the embassy, Canada House, in Trafalgar Square.
Prins, then a Canadian embassy worker, had been climbing the main staircase of Canada House to a meeting, unaware that Campbell had been following close behind her.
In a formal complaint submitted later to the embassy, Prins claimed she had been made to feel “humiliated and disrespected.” But at that moment, she simply “froze.”
“In that moment it just felt as though someone had just invaded my home or robbed me,” she said, speaking to The Daily Telegraph about the incident for the first time.
“I distinctly remember this hand went up my backside. It was significant. It wasn’t, ‘Oops, sorry I brushed you.’ It was definitely someone having a feel.”
Campbell, she said, couldn’t have reacted more differently. “I was shocked when we were in the meeting because he just carried on as if it was business as usual.
“He was just unashamedly being normal, absolutely no regard for what he had just done to me. I think that’s just where I had to file it away in my mind. I didn’t know how to process it at the time.”
The Dutch-Canadian mother-of-three, who lives in the U.K., told The Telegraph she chose to speak out in the wake of the MeToo movement and the claims surrounding British billionaire businessman Sir Philip Green who is accused of sexual assault and using racist comments. Pressure is growing to strip him of his knighthood. Green has categorically denied the allegations.
Prins, 54, made her formal complaint in January 2014, which she resolved on terms she is prohibited from discussing. However, she passed details of the complaint to The Telegraph, describing the allegation plus several more claims of inappropriate behaviour over a seven-month period.
She also claims she was warned by Mark Fletcher, the then-consul general, that three other women raised concerns about Campbell’s behaviour before she took up the role.
Prins says whilst the decision to waive her right to anonymity is “extremely daunting,” she believes her experiences are similar to other women who have felt unable to speak out against those in a “position of privilege, respect and power.”
Prins made a formal allegation of sexual assault to police last month.
In a statement, a spokesman the Metropolitan Police confirmed that officers were “investigating an allegation of sexual assault that occurred in 2013.”
They added: “A 54-yearold woman contacted police on 3 January 2019 and alleged she had been sexually assaulted at an address in Grosvenor Square. No arrests have been made at this stage. Inquiries are ongoing.”
Last night a spokesman for the Canadian government said it had “zero tolerance for sexual assault and harassment,” adding: “This kind of alleged misconduct in the workplace is absolutely unacceptable.”
In June last year, Campbell was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada.
After serving as mayor of Vancouver, he became leader of the B.C. Liberal Party, and in 2001 became premier, a position he held until 2011.
Two years after being named premier, Campbell pleaded no-contest to drunk-driving in Hawaii.
He was named high commissioner to the U.K. in 2011 by then-prime minister Stephen Harper, stepping down in 2016.