Married hedge fund boss ‘groped me like octopus’
A BANKER broke down in court yesterday as she said a multi-millionaire groped her in an ‘octopussy-type manoeuvre’.
Hedge fund boss Crispin Odey, 62, is accused of indecently assaulting her after inviting her to his house while his wife was away.
The woman claimed that after wrestling him off, she ‘almost felt sorry’ for him as she saw him looking ‘deflated’ and ‘lost’.
Odey, a Tory donor, admitted propositioning her in the hope they would ‘end up in bed’ but denies any physical contact, the court heard. He later emailed her to say ‘this does not turn me into a sleazy, dirty old man’. The woman did not report the 1998 incident at the time but told police in 2017 after, she said, being inspired by the #MeToo movement.
Yesterday, she told Hendon magistrates in north London she ‘just wanted to claim some sort of human dignity’. The prosecution said she had been introduced to the financier at a meeting at his company, Odey Asset Management.
He had ‘showed an interest in her’ and invited her to return to the office later, which ‘she hoped would further her career’.
The woman, 26 at the time, claims they took a taxi to his home in Chelsea, where he showered and changed into a robe. She claims Odey, then 39, groped her and put his hand up her dress. Under cross-examination, she said: ‘He was next to me. 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.’
In a statement to police, Odey denied touching the woman and said: ‘I probably misread the signals.’
The trial was adjourned until March 11 after the court rejected a submission by Odey’s barrister to throw the case out.