‘Up-skirt’ porn victim claims R25m
● A former employee at a global insurance firm is pursuing R25m in damages, claiming her company failed to assist her after an executive was allegedly found to have uploaded compromising videos of her to a porn site without her consent.
Earlier this month, Neil Ashcroft, who was the business development executive at Marsh Africa, was dismissed, arrested and charged with crimen injuria.
Ashcroft allegedly secretly took videos of the woman from under tables during meetings and at functions, with up-skirt shots and video of her leaning or bending over.
The woman, who does not want to be named, left the company shortly afterwards, saying she had not received sufficient support from management.
A civil summons sent to both Marsh and Ashcroft this week by attorneys acting for the woman said she had suffered R25m in damages, as her right to privacy and dignity was impaired, and she had suffered trauma and injuria.
She says the company is liable because the footage was taken during working hours while she and Ashcroft were meeting on work-related matters within the “course and scope of their employment”.
A spokesperson for Marsh declined to comment on the woman’s allegations or the case against the company. “As the former colleague has now initiated civil proceedings against Marsh, we are unable to comment further,” the spokesperson said.
Ashcroft’s lawyer, Rudi Pottas, said he was unable to comment on the civil claims.
In an interview, the woman said that on November 19 2017, a friend told her he had found two videos of her on a porn website.
The first video had received more than 70,000 views. It began with a picture taken from her Facebook profile, showing her in a bikini.
The caption described her as a woman Ashcroft worked with. The remainder of the clip was a montage of videos of her.
When she went to the uploader’s profile, she claims she saw dozens of other similar videos, including one of a colleague at Marsh, and others whom she recognised as clients who had worked with Ashcroft.
She said she reported her discovery to the
company, and to police.
She recalled her embarrassment as four men and a woman watched the videos while she was in the room.
She said she had been offered the number of a counsellor, but said she would prefer a psychologist. She complained that the company’s human resources section did not follow up to see if she received therapy.
Though Ashcroft was dismissed after a hearing a few days later, she said the company had sent out an e-mail to staff saying he had left by mutual agreement.
A few months later, she took a job at another firm.
The prosecution in Ashcroft’s criminal case at the Randburg magistrate’s court has seized his electronic devices, in part to trace other potential complainants in the trial.
Ashcroft was arrested in December last year. Last month the case was postponed as the state is awaiting a forensic report on his electronic devices.