Thirty-three current and former employees of an LGBTQ news website in the U.K. have accused its publisher and husband of sexual harassment and misconduct.
The BBC on Tuesday reported “several” former PinkNews staffers saw Chief Operating Officer Anthony James “kissing and touching a junior colleague who they saw appeared too drunk to consent” outside of a London pub after a company event.
James’s husband, Benjamin Cohen, founded PinkNews in 2005. The BBC reported the current and former staffers with whom it spoke said “a culture of heavy drinking led to instances when” Cohen and James “behaved inappropriately towards younger male employees.” Stephan Kyriacou, who worked at PinkNews from 2019-2021, told the BBC that Cohen slapped him on his butt at a Christmas party. “I just shut down for a minute.
I didn’t know what to say. I was in shock,” Kyriacou told the BBC. “I remember turning to my friends and saying, ‘What the hell just happened?'” The BBC spoke with PinkNews staffers who said “they were shouted at and belittled by Mr.