David Sullivan, the billionaire co-owner of West Ham United, has been accused by seven women of sexually exploitative and predatory behaviour spanning decades, with some alleging he pressured them for sex in exchange for work at his newspapers. The allegations, uncovered by BBC Panorama and The Times, have prompted the 77-year-old to resign as joint chair of the club on Saturday, hours before the investigation was published.
The women, who were in their late teens or early twenties at the time, said Sullivan abused his power as the owner of the Daily and Sunday Sport newspapers. One woman, using the pseudonym Florence, told the BBC she felt forced to have sex with Sullivan during a business meeting at his home when she was 20. She said he told her she would be one of his “regular girls” if they had sex. When she tried to make excuses, including that she was on her period, Sullivan manoeuvred her into a bedroom and began having sex with her. “This is the bit that will haunt me forever,” Florence said. “He lifted his pinky in the air – his little finger – and he went, it’s all right, I’ll only put it in a little bit.” She described being in “pure panic mode” and said she was telling him she did not want to. Sullivan’s lawyers have described her account as “implausible”.
“Seven women accuse West Ham co-owner David Sullivan of sexually exploiting them, with some saying he demanded sex for modelling work.”
Another woman, Sacha, recalled being summoned to his mansion for a business meeting, where he was dressed in “flip-flops” and a scruffy t-shirt. When she sat down, she told him: “If you think I’m going to sleep with you to get in the paper, you’ve got another thing coming.” She said Sullivan replied: “What, not even a blow job?”
The investigation also revealed that Sullivan has admitted paying for sex in the 1990s with a girl who, he says, he believed was 16 or 17 years old. Sullivan was in his 40s at the time. It only became illegal to pay for sex with a 16 or 17 year old in 2003.
Most of the women have chosen to remain anonymous, in some cases because they fear Sullivan and are concerned about potential repercussions. On Monday evening, the Metropolitan Police said it was investigating a report relating to the “alleged taking of indecent images and sexual exploitation at locations in London and Essex in the 1980s”, relating to one alleged victim.
Sullivan has denied all allegations, calling them “factually incorrect and entirely false”. In a statement, he said: “I have not been provided with any proper explanation as to how these individuals or their claims were independently verified or assessed for credibility prior to publication. I believe that the entire process has been fundamentally unfair and completely lacking in any due impartiality. I will be suing the BBC for libel, along with any other media outlet that repeats any libellous allegations.”