Judy Murray left feeling ‘disgusted’ after assault
Tennis stars’ mother reveals ordeal at hands of male award dinner guest
JUDY Murray has said she was left ‘disgusted’ and ‘feeling sick’ after a man put his hand down her trousers at an after-dinner event.
Mrs Murray spoke out after a leading female sports journalist walked out of a Scottish awards ceremony in response to a sexist speech.
The mother of tennis Grand Slam champions Jamie and Andy Murray said she is dismayed that in 2022 women are still having to endure such everyday sexism and called on men to challenge misogyny.
In her column for The Sunday Post, the national coach and former captain of Great Britain’s Fed Cup team revealed she was groped at a function set up by an educational organisation where she had been invited as an after-dinner speaker.
The incident happened eight years ago and the 62-year-old has not spoken out about it before – but says if something like it happened now, she ‘definitely would’.
Recalling the incident, she said the man first placed his hand on her knee before later putting it down the back of her trousers.
She said: ‘Towards the end of the meal it was clear he had had quite a bit to drink and he put his hand firstly on my knee.
‘I didn’t know what to do so I removed his hand and leaned forward to pour myself some water and as I did he slipped his hand down the back of my trousers.
‘At this point I got up and went straight to the bathroom. I wanted to throw up.
‘I was totally disgusted and didn’t know what to do. I was in a state, wondering if I should report this to someone? If so, to whom? I knew it would cause a huge stir.
‘Plus, I still had to speak on the panel. Do I just leave now, or do my speech and leave?
‘It rocked me so badly. I sat in the loos for ages and decided to do the speech – the show must go on and all that – but I didn’t go back into the room until I knew it was time for me to go on stage.
‘As soon as I had done my bit, I walked back to the table, picked up my bag and left.
‘I spoke to nobody. The incident left me feeling sick to my stomach for a long time. I have never spoken of this before but maybe I should have.
‘If something like that happened to me now, I definitely would.
‘Women have found their voices and are calling out all sorts of sexist behaviour.’
She also said that at the 2004 Scottish Sports Awards she accepted an award on behalf of Sir Andy but had not realised it was a black-tie event and ‘was totally under-dressed while everyone else was glammed up’. Discussing the moment she took to the stage, she wrote: ‘The presenter joked, “Could he not have bought you something decent to wear?”
‘I wanted the ground to swallow me up. After that I said no to every invitation for fear of saying, doing or wearing the wrong thing.
‘Far too often women are made to feel the world of sport is not for us and that our presence is neither welcome nor important.’
Mrs Murray said men should ‘call out’ sexism whenever they witness it. ‘It should not be for women to do all the heavy lifting,’ she added. ‘That is how change will happen. Decent people say enough. And it should not always be women.’ Broadcaster Eilidh Barbour last week criticised the persistent culture of sexism in sport after she walked out of the Scottish Football Writers’ Association dinner because of sexist jokes made by an after-dinner speaker.
Miss Barbour tweeted that she had ‘never felt so unwelcome in the industry’, while others have described the jokes as ‘sexist, racist and homophobic’.
The SFWA apologised to anyone ‘offended or upset’.
The BBC and Sky Sports presenter was among two tables of guests who walked out of the event in protest.
‘Women have found their voices’