TOP Gear host Chris Evans flashed at a colleague almost every day for two
years, she has claimed.
The woman says
the 52-year-old star grabbed her breasts and bullied her after she
rejected his advances.
She says her complaints were ignored by his production team, and the ordeal
left her traumatised and on anti-depressants.
The woman, who worked with Evans in the 1990s, says she is speaking out to
protect others at risk of being harassed by him.
And she told of her shock when BBC chiefs signed Evans to front Top Gear,
despite what she believes to be widespread knowledge of his behaviour.
The BBC and Evans’ long-term agent declined to comment when approached by The
Sun on Sunday.
Sources close to the star insist he has not behaved improperly since rejoining
the Beeb in 2002.
But Evans’ former colleague, who spoke out anonymously, claimed their working
relationship took a disturbing turn after she refused to sleep with him.
Speaking to website Heat Street, she said: “Chris wanted an affair with me but
I didn’t want to because he was with someone else at the time.
“So he sent me to Coventry. He told colleagues not to talk to me. It was
bullying behaviour.
“He often said I was crap at my job and would sometimes grab my breasts. I
became totally desensitised to his behaviour.
“He would scream, shout and swear at me if I told him something simple such as
reminding him he was due on air in ten minutes. Sometimes I was on my own
with him, sometimes not.
“All I was thinking was that I had to do my job and make sure everything was
going efficiently.”
The woman, who says she made a statement about Evans’ behaviour to a lawyer
five years ago, claims he regularly exposed his erect penis to her. She said
he used the tactic to punish those who didn’t do what he wanted.
She added: “He might have thought what he was doing was amusing, but like a
lot of bullies he cloaked it in a joke. Bullies make out that you’re not
being fun if you’re not being part of that joke.
“I have no idea if he was getting some gratification out of this, but he used
to get his penis out every time I saw him.
“He’d either just get it out, or he’d walk into a room naked.
“Sometimes it was erect, sometimes it wasn’t. It was pretty much every single
day. It was relentless.
“When I speak about this, it may not sound that bad but actually it was. I
know other people experience the same thing at work but this was quite
extreme because of the relentlessness of it, almost every day for two years.”
We revealed last week that several of Evans’ former colleagues accused him of
bullying and repeatedly exposing himself before he worked for the BBC.
Their messages appeared on a public Facebook page.
The woman added: “I wasn’t surprised when I read about that. In my experience,
sometimes he exposed himself in front of other people. With me, he would do
it practically every single day.
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“He’d torture people who didn’t do what he wanted them to do. I complained to
the production team and they said they would deal with it and they didn’t.
“I ended up on anti-depressants. My doctor put me on them.
“Looking back I should have left sooner but I stayed because I had to pay the
rent.” Soon after making the complaint, she quit the job, saying she was
burnt out.
But she said she was still coping with the effects of the star’s abusive
behaviour a long time after she finished working with him.
She added: “It took me a long time to recover. I got asked to do another job
afterwards and I couldn’t bring myself to do it because I had had enough of
the way I’d been treated.
“I couldn’t do it any more. After that I didn’t work for quite a while.
“I was traumatised, not just by Chris but by the entire job. But his behaviour
was a catalyst to my trauma. He knew he could get away with it because he is
the golden goose, and those below him don’t count.
“I wasn’t scared of Chris, just deeply traumatised by his behaviour. It upsets
me that he did that and got away with it.
“I’m upset that everyone thought it was ok, or they didn’t do anything to stop
it.
The woman has considered taking her complaints further in a bid to expose what
she believes to be the truth. She added: “Everyone says he’s changed, but
there’s no way in my opinion. Everyone I’ve spoken to is scathing about him,
particularly intelligent people who’ve worked with him.
“They were just appalled by his behaviour, and it is appalling.
“I just resent having been treated like that. I often think about taking this
further, because you have to do something to protect other people.
“Also, there’s nothing worse than seeing someone who has behaved that badly
being so successful and everyone being hoodwinked by it.
“A lot of people who don’t know him and watch him as an entertainer think he’s
great. I don’t think they realise what he’s like and how he’s got this weird
side.
“I think it is all part of him being a bully, the rich tapestry that is his
bullying, and that’s how it manifests itself.”
Evans and co-host Matt LeBlanc have been working on a new series of Top Gear
which is scheduled to air on BBC2 and BBC America on May 29. Evans is
reportedly being paid about £1million for his role in the six-part show.
The woman added: “I’m amazed he has been promoted, particularly in
the post-Savile climate. I’m absolutely gobsmacked that the BBC employed him
in any capacity. Why would they take that risk? I don’t understand it.
“If you Google ‘Chris Evans and bullying’, then stories come up about it going
back many years.
“When he got the Top Gear job, I thought it was just appalling. I don’t know
what’s going on at the BBC. I love the BBC, (so) it would be a shame if
Chris damaged it.
“But I think he should now be investigated regarding the claims made against
him recently and whatever else happened before.
“I think you should be accountable for your behaviour going back as far as you
can, even if it was 25 or 30 years ago.
“I can’t watch him on television or listen to him on the radio because I know
the truth about him, so I can’t bear that.
“He’d got away with it yet again. He steamrollers over everyone.
“I’ve met very few people like that in my life. I think he’s particularly bad.
He trashes people . . . it’s not normal behaviour.”
A spokeswoman for the BBC and a spokesman for Evans last night declined to
comment.