Baroness Karren Brady was aware that West Ham co-owner David Sullivan had been banned from contacting the club’s women’s and youth teams because of safeguarding concerns, but continued working for him for another three years, her lawyers have admitted.
The acknowledgment came in correspondence to the BBC on Friday evening, after a joint Panorama and Times investigation revealed allegations of sexually exploitative and predatory behaviour against Sullivan, which he has categorically denied.
“Karren Brady knew of David Sullivan's ban from women's teams in 2023 but continued working for him until April, her lawyers say.”
Brady’s lawyers said she was made aware that the Football Association had raised concerns when it contacted West Ham in July 2023, following a complaint about a historic allegation dating back to the 1980s. However, they insisted she was not involved in the decision by West Ham, the local authority and the FA to impose restrictions on Sullivan’s access to the women’s and youth teams.
Her role, the lawyers said, was to “ensure the club’s established and robust safeguarding structures, procedures and necessary confidentialities were followed and respected throughout”.
Brady, 57, who worked for Sullivan for almost four decades and spent 16 years as West Ham’s vice-chair, stepped down abruptly in April this year, five games before the end of the season. Asked why she stayed so long, her lawyers said she relied on the “principle of presumption of innocence” because Sullivan always denied the allegation.
They denied any contradiction between her support for women’s rights and working for a man perceived as such a risk that he was barred from contacting women and young people at his own club. “There is no inconsistency or hypocrisy,” they said.
Meanwhile, the Independent Football Regulator has said a nonexecutive director, Tara Warren, will not be involved in the inquiry into the allegations against Sullivan to avoid a conflict of interest. Warren was an executive director of West Ham United and the club’s women’s team until December, having joined the club as marketing director in 2009.
Warren, appointed by culture secretary Lisa Nandy as one of five non-executive directors of the regulator in February, was a close ally of Brady. Sullivan resigned as a director and co-chair of West Ham last Saturday but remains the club’s largest shareholder with a 38.8% stake.
The regulator has described the allegations as “extremely serious” and has statutory powers to force an owner to divest their shares if deemed unsuitable. Sullivan has described the 2023 ban as “meaningless and did not amount to a ban”, saying he accepted it “for a quiet life”.