‘He loved that I was scared’

Woman makes fresh Metoo accusation in wake of Telegraph’s revelations about businessman as Theresa May pledges to act against sex case gagging orders

A WELL-KNOWN socialite today says she was sexually assaulted at a party by the businessman she believes is at the centre of the Metoo scandal exposed by The Daily Telegraph.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, tells how a British businessman put his hand up her skirt at the event in the “late Noughties” while her boyfriend stood nearby unaware.

She says that she left the event “without causing a scene” as she found the businessman “scary” and believed that he was “revelling” in power.

“He loved that I was scared. In fact I’ll bet a lot of the enjoyment for him was knowing that I would be too scared to say anything,” she says.

The woman tells her story after The Telegraph yesterday disclosed that a businessman used non-disclosure agreements (NDAS) to silence and pay off staff who accused him of sexual assault and racism.

This newspaper is unable to name the businessman or give other details that might identify him after an injunction granted by the Court of Appeal. He has spent close to £500,000 on a team of at least seven lawyers to persuade the Court of Appeal to injunct

The Telegraph. He has used NDAS on at least five members of staff. The woman making the allegations today is not among them.

Last night, the police issued an appeal for any apparent victims of sexual assault to report allegations of any criminal activity, with sources saying that the non-disclosure agreements should not prevent people reporting anything that could be a crime.

Yesterday, there was growing political furore after The Telegraph reported the case.

Theresa May, although declining to discuss the specific case, pledged to act to end the use of “unethical” NDAS and said that sexual harassment in the workplace was “abhorrent” and illegal.

The Prime Minister told the Commons that a consultation document, due to be published next week, would make clear that NDAS should not be applied in cases where victims make complaints of sexual assault which are of a criminal nature.

Mrs May said: “Sexual harassment in the workplace is against the law. Such abhorrent behaviour should not be tolerated.

“An employer that allows that harassment of women to go undealt with is sending a message about how welcome they are and their value in the workplace. Just as we won’t accept any behaviour that causes people to feel intimidated or humiliated in the workplace, there must be consequences for failing to comply with the law.”

Mrs May was challenged to act in the Commons by Jess Phillips, the Labour MP, who said: “It seems that our laws allow rich and powerful men to pretty much do whatever they want as long as they can pay to keep it quiet.”

She said the law around NDAS “needs more teeth and it needs to happen quickly. We are a year on from Metoo and nothing has changed”. Other MPS and campaigners also spoke out against the use of gagging orders in sexual harassment cases.

Caroline Nokes, the immigration minister, told BBC Radio 4’s World at

One: “What a dreadful state of affairs that you have this sort of situation where somebody is using their wealth and their power to keep their name hidden.”

Maria Miller, the chairman of the Commons women and equalities committee, said that she was concerned that NDAS had been used to “cover up” inappropriate behaviour. “On reflect- ing on this case, I think that the really interesting part of this is the way the NDAS have been used repeatedly to cover up behaviour.”

Zelda Perkins, Harvey Weinstein’s former assistant, who dramatically broke an NDA to expose sexual harassment, said that the agreements were being used “unethically”.

“They are being used to bully employees and bully the press,” she said.

Kate Maltby, the writer whose sexual harassment allegations against Damian Green ultimately led to the former first secretary of state’s departure from the Government, spoke out against the injunction granted to the businessman.

She writes in The Telegraph today: “If feminists like myself are serious about exposing the abuse of powerful men, we should be campaigning for more light to be shed on the lives of public figures, not less.

“I can assure readers that with lessrestrictive UK laws on privacy we’d know a lot more about some of the politicians accused of sexual harassment in Westminster than has ever been published.”

‘It seems that our laws allow rich and powerful men to pretty much do whatever they want’