Lucy Spraggan's rape ordeal after she was attacked by porter during The X Factor
Lucy Spraggan has revealed that she was raped by a hotel porter during her time on The X Factor.
The singer has detailed in her new memoir, Process: Finding My Way Through that the ordeal happened while she was filming the show in 2012.
She has now opened up about how it impacted the next 10 years of her life and how she felt let down by ITV.
The now 31-year-old said the rape happened after a night celebrating fellow contestant Rylan Clark's 25th birthday at the Mayfair nightclub Mahiki, which was attended by the X Factor crew.
Lucy explained that she passed out and was taken back to the hotel by a member of the production team, where a hotel porter offered to help get Spraggan to her room.
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The porter then flipped the security latch on her door as they left to prevent it locking behind them.
Lucy has released a memoir (Instagram)
Lucy took part in X Factor in 2012 (Instagram)Later on Rylan went to check on an unconscious Lucy and made sure her door was locked before he left.
But, when the porter returned to Spraggan’s room to attack her, he had to use a traceable keycard due to the door then being locked.
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."
Despite the production team calling the police and an arrest being made quickly, Lucy said she didn't thunk they were prepared to deal with the situation.
Lucy was given financial and medical support in the immediate aftermath of the crime, but she said she wasn't supported after the trial.
She said: "No one ever contacted me to ask if I was OK. 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."
Lucy was voted through the first three live shows before leaving the competition, with the reason being given as illness at the time. She said in the days after the assault, the side-effects of Pep (a drug that prevents HIV) made her too unwell to carry on with the competition.
A spokesperson for ITV said: "We have the deepest compassion for Lucy and everything she has endured as a result of this horrific ordeal. We commend her resilience and bravery. The X Factor was produced by Thames and Syco, who were primarily responsible for duty of care towards all of its programme contributors.
"ITV as a commissioning broadcaster is committed to having in place suitable and robust oversight procedures, with a view to ensuring that independent producers employ the correct processes to protect the mental health and welfare of participants. We have evolved and improved these oversight procedures since the events in question and we are encouraged to hear that Thames recognises the importance of continuous review and improvement of their own processes.
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"We continue to evolve our own duty of care processes on programmes we produce to ensure that there are appropriate measures in place to support contributors before, during and after filming. In an event of such a distressing nature, welfare and support towards the victim would always be of the utmost priority."
A spokesperson for Fremantle 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.”
The Mirror have contacted Lucy's reps and Syco for comment.
If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
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