COMIC LEGEND ACCUSED OF Benny Hill offered me a job in return for sexual favours
EIGHTIES punk queen Hazel O’Connor today claims she was sexually assaulted by Benny Hill.
The star of cult movie Breaking Glass says she is still haunted by the incident in his London flat.
Hazel, then an unknown, says the slapstick comedy star told her he would only allow her to work as one of his famous Benny Hill girls in return for “sexual favours”.
She claims she had to push him off after he leapt on her as she tried to leave.
The singer and actress, 62, says she has been haunted ever since by the incident in 1976.
It came just five years after she was raped at 16 while travelling in Morocco.
In an exclusive interview, she said: “I’d been working as a dancer in Beirut and Japan. When I finished that I was sent to be possibly one of the Benny Hill girls.”
DISGUSTED
The women who made up the team who later became Hill’s Angels played the scantily-clad objects of the comic’s letchery in his TV sketches.
Hazel, who was then 21, arranged to meet at the then 47-year-old Hill’s flat. She said: “When I walked in he was saying, ‘Well, these are my girls’.
“He kept showing me pictures of these sexy women who worked with him and saying how they ‘looked after him’.
“Eventually he said to me ‘Well, I need to know… will you look after me too?’.
“I was disgusted and was getting ready to leave when he tried to snog me. I pushed him away and got out of there.”
There is no suggestion any of the Benny Hill girls ever did what Hill was hinting at, but Hazel added: “I knew I
Comedian Hill in a car with his trademark beret and some of his Hill’s Angels from the later Benny Hill shows. He was often seen in chases with them as the credits rolled hadn’t got the job, but I wouldn’t have degrees.” Southampton-born Hill, real wanted it. I know what he meant by ‘look name Alfred Hawthorne Hill, died a after me’ – he meant sex. It still blows my legend in 1992. mind and makes me very cross.” He had changed his first name in
At that point in her life she was trying homage to his favourite comedian Jack to get over the terrifying incident in Benny before becoming a household Marrakesh where she claims she was name on The Benny Hill Show. raped by a local man at knifepoint. It was a mix of slapstick, burlesque
Hazel says she was scared to report and double entendres, with him at the the incident to local police and returned centre of almost every scene usually to England where she believes she involving women. suffered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It was one of the most watched
“I never told anyone about it,” she said programmes on British TV, with audience in a 2009 interview. “I remember the fear figures peaking at more than 21 I felt – that I was going to million in 1971. be killed – and the fear The show elevated Hill to national of getting pregnant. treasure status and won him a string of Everything famous fans, including Michael Jackson, changed. My life Clint Eastwood, Frank Sinatra and turned 360 Charlie Chaplin, who reportedly had a shelf of Benny Hill films in his office. From the start of the 1980s, the show – which has been shown in more than 100 countries and is still screened worldwide – featured a troupe of young women known as Hill’s Angels.
They would appear either on their own in a dance sequence, as well as in character as foils against Hill, who was often seen chasing them around.
In October 1985, former Page Three girl Stefanie Martin accused him of forcing her to “perform” while he pleasured himself after promising her a speaking part in his show.
Responding to the allegation at the time, he said: “It wasn’t the way she made it sound at all.”
Hill’s Angel Nikki Critcher also later claimed she had to slap his face when he squeezed her breasts hard in rehearsal.
Hill, who never married despite twice proposing, died in 1992.
ABUSE
Earlier this year, fans, including pal Garry Bushell, stepped up a campaign to honour the comedian with a bronze statue in Southampton.
Showbiz stars Barbara Windsor, Vicki Michelle, Rick Wakeman and Joe Pasquale, have backed a bid to raise £60,000.
Hazel became famous in the early 1980s with hit singles Eighth Day, D-Days and Will You.
She also starred in the film Breaking Glass, depicting the rise and fall of a pop singer, before signing a deal with Paramount Studios and heading to Hollywood to embark on a screen career.
She said she didn’t feel she could tell anyone about the incident with Hill at the time. “That’s how the psyche of rape and abuse works, you always think it’s your fault,” she said.
She says she has been shocked by the Harvey Weinstein allegations and added: “I hope things will change now.”
He said ‘will you look after me?’ then tried to snog me. I had to push him away HAZEL O’CONNOR ON HER HILL’S GIRL INTERVIEW AT HIS FLAT