Rylan breaks 11-year silence on 'horrendous' Lucy Spraggan X Factor rape ordeal

06 February 2024 , 15:39

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Lucy quit The X Factor in order to focus on treatment after the horrific incident (Image: BBC)

Rylan Clark has broken his silence after his close friend Lucy Spraggan's rapist was convicted.

The singer was raped by former hotel porter Soby John after a night celebrating fellow contestant Rylan Clark's 25th birthday at the Mayfair nightclub Mahiki, which was attended by the X Factor crew. At the time, she and Rylan were staying at the Hilton London Metropole when the ordeal happened while she was filming the show in 2012.

John, who was 24 at the time of the sickening assault, snuck into the then-20-year-old singer's hotel room while she slept using a staff key card and attacked her. But after discovering what happened, Rylan instantly leapt into action to support his friend. The morning after the horrific incident, Lucy called Rylan who swept in and helped preserve the scene.

Rylan Clark has spoken for the first time about Lucy Spraggan's rape ordeal

In a new interview, the star says he told The X Factor team and Lucy not to have the hotel room cleaned as they would be "f**ked" if the evidence vanished. It's claimed that Lucy's legal team believe Rylan is part of the reason that they managed to secure a conviction against Soby.

"This is so weird we're having this conversation because for 11 years I've kept it all quiet," he told The Guardian. The presenter went on to say: "I'm getting emotional. That was a really, really tough time. It was horrendous and I’ve still not spoken about it because it's not my story to tell, even though I was part of it." Rylan continued: "Lucy calls me Jessica Fletcher because I came over all Angela Lansbury."

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He explained that he became "like a crime detective", encouraging people to leave the scene of the atrocious crime alone in order for officers from The Met to collect as much evidence as possible. That week, Lucy was given the Saturday night off from the singing competition due to "illness" – with Rylan paying tribute to her during his performance. She later quit the competition to seek treatment for what had happened.

Rylan helped Lucy secure a conviction and preserve evidence from the scene (Anthony Harvey/REX/Shutterstock)

Spraggan waived her right to anonymity last year (lspraggan/Instagram / ITV)

Lucy's attacker was arrested and later jailed for 10 years in April 2013. According to MailOnline, he was sent back to India on January 30, 2017. A Home Office spokesperson told the Mirror: "Foreign nationals who commit crimes here in the UK will face the full force of the law, including deportation at the earliest opportunity for those eligible."

Bravely waiving her right to anonymity last year, Lucy told The Guardian: "I woke up the next day with this sense of sheer dread. 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." Lucy and Rylan were staying in a separate hotel from their fellow co-stars at the time.

Last year, she explained that "no one" contacted her after the trial and she wasn't offered rehabilitation or mental health treatment, instead, she sought this herself. Simon Cowell later apologised to Lucy, despite him not working on the programme at the time of her assault.

A spokesperson for Freemantle who produced the former talent show said: "The serious sexual assault suffered by Lucy Spraggan in October 2012 was a truly horrific criminal act for which the perpetrator, who was not connected with the programme, was rightfully prosecuted and imprisoned. Anyone should feel safe when they are sleeping in a hotel room - and it is abhorrent to think that a hotel porter abused that trust in such a vile way.

"To our knowledge, the assault was an event without precedent in the UK television industry. Whilst 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 aftercare processes. Whilst we have worked hard to try and protect Lucy's lifetime right to anonymity, we applaud her strength and bravery now that she has chosen to waive that right."

* If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or by calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999

Daniel Bird