A woman has claimed she was sexually assaulted in a cupboard at the Principality Stadium while working at the home of Welsh rugby.
The victim, who suffered two attacks, has courageously spoken about her ordeal, which was allegedly carried out by a colleague between 2019 and 2021, while working at the iconic Cardiff venue.
The incident was not mentioned in a damning report into sexism and misogyny at the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), which highlighted ‘toxic’ and ‘vindictive’ behavior within the organization when it was released in November 2023.
A culture of bullying and discrimination was highlighted after more than fifty witnesses or groups of witnesses – including former and current players – were interviewed for the review.
The woman revealed that she froze in fear as the man carried out the closet attack.
She said: “He was sitting there in the cupboard in the office waiting. He closed the door, pinned me against a piece of wood and sexually assaulted me. I just froze, which I hate. I hate myself for not doing it [anything].
“I was just in shock when he was in my face. Ever since he did it, I just wanted to be invisible. He said he would never do it again and he came to pick up mail one day and he wasn’t supposed to be at work.
“He came up, it was just after Covid and we were just coming back in. He came and found me and said come to the office soon.” I knew it in my head, but stupidly I went. We got to the office and I thought I wasn’t going to sit down, so I stood by the door.
She added: “He knew then that I wasn’t going to come in, so when we came out he grabbed my bottom. I thought he had done it again, it took me right back to the first time. I just froze again.”
The woman claimed the suspect laughed after what happened and said “see you tomorrow.”
She took the step to message him and received a reply that read, “I’m sorry, it will never happen again.”
“Actually he admitted it, which I showed the stadium [management],” she said. “I hated going to work, I was always nervous when people would walk past me in the offices and I would jump and they would be like calm.”
She said the culture of bullying was common at the stadium.
“He kept bullying everyone,” she said. “People in the department and people across the WRU knew about it – even people in the store.”
She added: “One day I was sitting in the car park at work and I messaged the line manager and told her everything.
‘He resigned as soon as he heard I had said something. He got a new job straight away.”
Her allegations are among the most serious to come to light after claims were exclusively revealed in March 2022 that a former Welsh Rugby Union employee had accused individuals within the governing body of joking about her rape and comparing her to Hitler.
The female complainant highlighted that there is a culture of sexism and misogyny within the Welsh Rugby Union.
Thirty-six recommendations were made, including governance, complaints handling, the union’s approach to inclusivity and diversity, and investment in the women’s game, following an independent report.
The latest victim said she believed her case and others like hers should have been central to the WRU’s review.
When asked, she said: ‘Yes, I am really disgusted. To get the full picture you have to look at everything. You feel like they just swept me under the rug. I was an issue that they just really wanted to address and never bring to light.
“It has changed every part of my life. I don’t go out, I have nightmares. I have panic attacks. It’s just not me.”
She said she made the decision to talk about what happened during her time at the WRU to protect other women.
‘I want it to stop. I want women to feel safe where they work and for people not to cover things up and to feel like they can say something. I didn’t feel like I could do that and that my work would be a safe place.
“I hated the place. It was like living in a nightmare. No amount of guidance or making my job easier was going to get me back in that building.”
The victim said she did not go to police for fear she would not be believed and that the WRU is not subject to any ongoing police investigation.
Previous allegations centered on a man making sexist comments about the Wales women’s team in 2020, claiming they did not know what it was like to be professional rugby players because they had only played “a bit of netball” and athletics.
It was further alleged that WRU staff used racist terms such as “p—” during a Zoom call, behavior which was ignored.
The situation at the WRU led to former CEO Steve Phillips leaving the governing body in January 2023 and was replaced by Abi Tierney in January this year.
It prompted the organization to overhaul its 12-strong board, which includes former Wales internationals Claire Donovan and Jamie Roberts.
Responding to the claims, Tierney said: “Firstly, it is vital for me, on behalf of everyone at the Welsh Rugby Union, to apologize directly to the individual involved. The behavior described is completely unacceptable and has never been tolerated and never will be tolerated.
“Our culture has failed to prevent such an incident and while we know our People team has worked hard to provide support and care over an extended period of time, some of our HR policies for dealing with such incidents were flawed. We have already said that we regret the use of confidentiality arrangements or similar arrangements upon termination of employment.
“More broadly, I would like to reiterate the full apology that both myself and others have previously offered to anyone affected by the issues and challenges raised in our recent Independent Review.
“Although the person wishes to remain anonymous, we understand from the description of the circumstances that this is one of the cases investigated by the Review and has thus already informed the recommendations for change that we want to make. The Review gives us a roadmap to continuous improvement and our current progress against the recommendations can be found here.
“The Review was conducted independently of the WRU. However, we know that the review team has made many direct approaches and put out an open call for people to speak to them. We have collaborated and encouraged this. In particular, we made it clear that we would like everyone to speak freely to the assessment team, including those who had left employment and who are under confidentiality arrangements. People who spoke to the Review Team did so on a confidential basis. We therefore cannot confirm and do not know whether this person has decided to speak to the Review or not.
“We continue to encourage people to use our whistleblowing hotline if they do not feel comfortable talking to their line management about any concerns. As we have already said, we understand that historical cases may emerge during and after the review period. We continue to welcome dialogue with anyone involved or affected by any of the issues raised so that we can apologize to them and continue to learn and improve.”