Rylan Clark supports brave Lucy Spraggan after she candidly shares rape ordeal
Rylan Clark shared a heartfelt message to the 'braved and loved' Lucy Spraggan after she revealed she was raped.
The musician 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.
She and Rylan were staying at the Hilton London Metropole when the ordeal happened while she was filming for the X Factor in 2012.
The singer detailed the harrowing experience in her new memoir, Process: Finding My Way Through, as well as on the How To Fail With Elizabeth Day podcast.
Presenter Rylan took to Twitter to share the link to the podcast and shared a public, heartfelt message for the singer.
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"Dear @lspraggan," he began. "I love you dearly, you are so brave and so loved.
Rylan shared a heartfelt message to Lucy on Twitter (Getty Images)
He said she is 'so brave and so loved' (Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty I)"Its took me a while to process and revisit all this since the weekend but everyone should know how brave you are and @elizabday done this perfect. I love you X #Sprylan," Rylan added.
Lucy's rapist, who was 24 at the time, snuck into the then-20-year-old singer's hotel room while she slept using a staff key card and attacked her.
She 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 Lucy to her room.
The porter then flipped the security latch on her door as they left to prevent it from locking behind them.
Rylan later went to check on her and made sure her door was locked before he left. The porter returned later to attack her and had to use a traceable keycard due to the door then being locked.
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.
Lucy revealed she was raped during her time on the show (lspraggan/Instagram)
She opened up about the heartbreaking ordeal in her new memoir (Instagram)In a statement shared with the publication, a spokesperson for the Home Office said: "'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."
A spokesperson for Freemantle, which is the company that produced X Factor, also released a statement.
"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," they said.
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"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
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