A former star of the UK’s The X Factor has revealed she was raped by a resort porter throughout manufacturing of the hit actuality present.
Lucy Spraggan, who was simply 20 on the time, says that she felt let down by X Factor broadcaster ITV after the harrowing ordeal in 2012.
In her new memoir, Process: Finding My Way Through, Spraggan mentioned the rape happened after an evening celebrating fellow X Factor alum Rylan Clark’s twenty fifth birthday on the swanky Mayfair nightclub Mahiki.
Spraggan mentioned that it was “inappropriate” for anybody, together with contestants, to be drunk.
The younger star handed out and was escorted again to the resort by a member of the manufacturing group, earlier than the resort porter supplied to escort her to her room.
As he left, the porter flipped the safety latch on her door to forestall it locking behind them.
Some time later, Clark checked in on an unconscious Spraggan and made certain her door was locked when he left.
This meant when the porter later returned to Spraggan’s room to be able to assault her, he had to make use of a traceable keycard.
“I woke up the next day with this sense of sheer dread,” Spraggan advised The Guardian.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt that level of confusion since. I knew that I’d been raped, but I could not process that. So I put my clothes on and went into autopilot.”
The manufacturing group referred to as the police and an arrest was shortly made, however the star mentioned she felt they have been “unprepared” to help her within the aftermath.
Spraggan mentioned within the days after the assault, the negative effects of Pep – a drug that stops HIV – made her too unwell to contemplate persevering with with the competitors.
“No one ever contacted me to ask if I was OK,” she writes in her guide.
She added: “No one called or emailed when the trial was over and he was convicted.
“No one offered me rehabilitation or ongoing mental health treatment. I was on my own.”
Spraggan was a well-liked contestant throughout her time on the ITV expertise present and impressed the judges with a track she had written.
She didn’t win the competitors as she needed to pull out – resulting from sickness – however the Sheffield singer went on to signal a file cope with Columbia and later went impartial.
Although she wished to make public the rationale for her exit from The X Factor, Spraggan claimed numerous folks advised her: “You have your whole career ahead of you and you can’t retract this.”
But the singer-songwriter mentioned she had since determined that “in order for me to rebuild myself and move on, I needed to tell the truth”.
A spokesperson for Fremantle, the present’s producers, mentioned: “While we believed throughout that we were doing our best to support Lucy in the aftermath of the ordeal, as Lucy thinks we could have done more, we must therefore recognise this. For everything Lucy has suffered, we are extremely sorry.
“Since then, we have done our very best to learn lessons from these events and improve our after-care processes.”
A spokesperson for ITV mentioned: “The X Factor was produced by Thames [part of Fremantle] and Syco, who were responsible for duty of care towards all of its programme contributors.
“ITV is committed to having in place suitable and robust processes to protect the mental health and welfare of programme participants, and we have continued to evolve and strengthen our approach.”
The X Factor creator Simon Cowell mentioned that what occurred to Spraggan was “horrific and heartbreaking”.
He mentioned: “When I was given the opportunity to speak to Lucy, I was able to personally tell her how sorry I was about everything she has been through.
“Although we met under tragic circumstances, a genuine friendship and a mutual respect has developed between us. Lucy is one of the most authentic, talented and brave people I have ever met.
“I have always supported her wish to tell her story as well as her efforts to bring about positive change.”
This article initially appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission
Source: www.news.com.au
