Green harassed me for a year, claims US Topshop boss
A FORMER Topshop manager has accused Sir Philip Green of a year- long campaign of sexual harassment, it was reported last night.
Auna Irvine, who headed one of the billionaire’s flagship US stores, said she had counselling to help her recover from alleged intimidation and bullying.
The 33-year- old claimed Sir Philip would grab her waist, slap her bottom and make inappropriate comments about her breasts. he even told her she needed to lose weight, the Daily Telegraph reported. Last month Sir Philip was named in Parliament as the businessman at the centre of sex pest and bullying claims.
The tycoon has vehemently denied the allegations. Miss Irvine has become the first woman to publicly accuse Sir Philip, 66, of sexual harassment. The media has been barred from reporting sex harassment and racism claims levelled against the tycoon by British employees because of an injunction.
however, the Telegraph has revealed Miss Irvine’s allegations because she is based in the US. The single mother, who was manager of a Topshop branch in Las Vegas, claimed Sir Philip would phone her at night, shout and call her ‘naughty’. She added that he would demean her in front of staff and his friends.
Miss Irvine said she was ‘destroyed’ by the ordeal she allegedly endured at the hands of Sir Philip. ‘ I felt extremely demeaned and devalued,’ she said. ‘It took years off my life.’ She claimed employees turned a blind eye to the billionaire’s behaviour, saying: ‘everybody lives in fear.’
She added: ‘he was extremely flirty and touchy from the moment he met me. The first thing he did once he was introduced to me was wrap his arms around my waist and said to the others present, both men, “Now this is what a manager should look like! Meet my new girlfriend – the Vegas manager”.
‘he would call me at all hours of the night. he had this obsession with – it gives me chills – this word “naughty”. It was like his tone of voice and it was just like, “Are you being naughty? I bet you’re being naughty”.’
Miss Irvine said Sir Philip must not be granted the ability to silence his accusers by throwing money at the courts. ‘If money can buy your court system, then it’s going to be a very ugly world,’ she said.
But the Topshop boss’s law firm, Schillings, said Miss Irvine had been fired for giving clothing away to her boyfriend and putting it through the checkout as damaged. They also said Sir Philip was not in the country.
MP Maria Miller, Tory chairman of the Commons women and equalities committee, said it was a ‘mockery’ of the law that UK victims could not have their stories heard.