Hedge fund boss ‘groped me in an Octopussy move’
A MILLIONAIRE hedge fund manager groped a young investment banker like an octopus, a court has heard.
Crispin Odey, 62, said he propositioned the woman, then 26, but denies indecently assaulting her at his home in Chelsea, west London, in 1998.
She alleges the Tory donor, then 39, put his hand down her shirt and up her skirt, after a work meeting.
She told Hendon magistrates’ court: ‘It was sort of like an Octopussy-type manoeuvre. The first thing I remember was actually on my back.
‘Then, it was like a scramble of hands, it was like a groping event, is the only way to describe it. The very first thing was the hand on my back, I can’t remember the exact sequence, I just remember the general attempt to get involved with my body and on top of me with his hands. I referred to it like an octopus experience.’
The court earlier heard from her friend – a former boyfriend – who said the woman was ‘very upset’ when she called at his flat after leaving Odey’s home.
The complainant, who now lives in the US, has said that she told three colleagues what had happened, and was warned she could be fired. But one told police there ‘was no suggestion’ it was so serious action had to be taken. Another had ‘no recollection’ and described Odey, with whom he still has a professional relationship, as ‘a complete gentleman’. Odey told police the woman sent him an email after the 2008 financial crash saying: ‘I won’t stop trying to chase you.’ He said his pro-Brexit campaigning could be behind his prosecution. The trial has been adjourned until March 11.