MURDERED MP’S HUSBAND IN SEX ABUSE SCANDAL
Top US official reported Jo Cox’s partner to police for indecent assault in bar
A NEW charity sex scandal erupted l ast ni ght aft er it emerged that the husband of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox was once accused of groping a senior US government official.
The woman reported Brendan Cox to American police, claiming he assaulted her late at night at Harvard University – although Mr Cox strongly denies the allegation.
Her complaint came soon after Mr Cox quit as a senior executive with Save The Children in 2015 following separate claims of inappropriate behaviour towards staff.
According to a report filed by police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the woman claims Mr Cox:
‘ Grabbed [ the woman] by the hips several times, pulled her hair
and forced his thumb into her mouth in a sexual way’;
‘Touched her inappropriately’ in a restaurant and tried to ‘push’ her into drinking more alcohol;
‘ Pulled her towards him and touched her stomach’ despite her telling him to stop;
Texted her later, asking: ‘Are you touching yourself?’
The woman was so upset she ‘couldn’t even look at Mr Cox’. She also said she ‘feared repercussions’ from him. In the police report, seen by The Mail on Sunday, the ‘incident type/offence’ is described as ‘indecent assault and battery on person 14 or over.’
Mr Cox’s lawyers last night said he denies the ‘spurious allegations’ and says no sexual assault took place.
This newspaper knows the identity of the woman, who is in her thirties, and has decided to protect her anonymity.
The disclosure of the report’s existence comes as Oxfam is reeling from claims it failed to warn other agencies about staff who quietly resigned after being caught using prostitutes in Haiti.
Mr Cox married Jo in 2009 and, since her murder, a week before the EU referendum in 2016, he has focused on raising the couple’s two children and helping to run the Jo Cox Foundation, set up ‘to channel the energy and determination generated by Jo’s life into practical efforts to advance the causes she championed’.
The alleged US incident involving Mr Cox took place in October 2015 weeks after left his post as senior Save The Children strategist in London following claims of inappropriate behaviour towards female members of staff. Mr Cox denied any wrongdoing there.
Mr Cox attended a two- week course at Harvard’s prestigious John F Kennedy School of Government run by the World Economic Forum, which also organises the annual economic summit in Davos, Switzerland.
Mr Cox, who worked in Downing Street for Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2010, was named a Young Global Leader by the forum in 2012. He attended the 2015 Harvard course along with nearly 100 international rising-star charity officials and civil servants.
Past Young Global Leaders include David Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page.
The woman – who was studying at Harvard at the time – complained to police in Cambridge, where the university is located, on November 6.
Under the heading ‘offender,’ the report, dated six days later, says the ‘suspect’ is ‘Brendan Cox, white, about 38’ and that the ‘female victim’, who is named in the file, described her alleged assailant as having brown hair and being 5ft 10in to 6ft tall.’ The report says that on Thursday, October 29, she went to Felipe’s, a restaurant in Harvard Square with Mr Cox.
‘While there and on the walk back, Mr Cox touched her inappropriately… touched her “ass” , grabbed her by the hips several times, pulled her hair and forced his thumb into her mouth in a sexual way.’
He ‘also pulled her towards him and touched her stomach’ even though she had ‘made it clear’ she wanted no sexual contact. ‘ She received a text later in the evening from Cox that read “are you touching yourself?”’
The report records the woman’s belief that Mr Cox was trying to ply her with drink. She had had ‘ three glasses of wine and one tequila shot’ during the evening and believed ‘Cox was pushing her to consume alcohol’ despite her telling him she did not normally do so.
‘Cox kept saying “Let’s go to your place” or “Let’s go to my place”’ after she had told him she wanted no physical contact.
‘Unwanted touching’ took place between midnight and 1.30am’ and all of it made the woman ‘ feel extremely uncomfortable’.
She is also said to have mentioned the incident to Harvard.
It is understood police did not i nvestigate t he matter at t he request of the woman. The report states she ‘only wanted the incident documented at this time’ and had been ‘ reluctant’ to complain to police because she ‘feared repercussions from the suspect.’
Cambridge Police last night confirmed the existence of the case file to The Mail on Sunday.
Mr Cox declined to comment last night, but his lawyers said he denies the ‘spurious allegations’ and says no sexual assault took place.
They added that the fact Mr Cox has never been contacted or questioned by the Massachusetts police was further evidence that the claims were untrue. They also questioned t he motivation of the complainant.
That Cox was the subject of a complaint so close to him leaving Save The Children will put renewed focus on British charities as both the Government and the Charity Commission last night announced probes into whether Oxfam covered up the scandal of its workers having orgies with prostitutes after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010.
Chief executive Mark Goldring told ITV News that it was ‘highly likely’ public donations to Oxfam would have fallen if the charity had revealed the scandal. But he denied any cover-up.
The charity says it disclosed sexual misconduct to the regulator.
Last night International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt hinted the Government could pull Oxfam’s funding, which amounted to £31.7 million last year. She said: ‘We will not work with any organisation that does not live up to the high standards on safeguarding and protection that we require.’
‘He made me feel extremely uncomfortable’