A woman has claimed she was sexually assaulted in a cupboard at the Principality Stadium while she was working at the Welsh rugby house.
The victim, who suffered two attacks during her time working at the iconic Cardiff venue, has bravely spoken out about her ordeal, which was allegedly carried out by a colleague between 2019 and 2021.
The incident was never mentioned in a damning report into the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU)’s sexism and misogyny when it was published in November 2023, which highlighted “toxic” and “vindictive” behavior within the organisation.
A culture of bullying and discrimination was highlighted after more than 50 witnesses or groups of witnesses (including past and current players) were interviewed for the review.
The woman said she froze in fear when the man attacked the closet.
He said: “It was sitting in the cupboard in the office. He pulled the door open and pinned me against the log and sexually assaulted me. I froze, which I hate. I hate myself for not doing this [anything].
“I was in shock when it came in my face. From the moment he did it I just wanted to be invisible. He said he would never do that again and one day he came here to get the mail and shouldn’t have been at work.”
“He came, it was right after Covid and we were just coming back. He came and found me and said you need to come to the office in a minute” I knew in my head but stupidly I went. We arrived at the office and I stood by the door, thinking I wasn’t going to sit down.
She added: “Then he knew I wouldn’t go in so when we got out he grabbed me from behind. I thought he did it again, he took me right back to the first time. “I just froze again.”
The woman claimed that the suspect laughed at what happened and said “see you tomorrow”.
She took the step of texting him and received a response saying, “I’m sorry this will never happen again.”
“He actually accepted it and I showed it to the stadium. [management]said. “I hated going to work, I was always nervous when people passed me in offices and they would calm down when I jumped in.”
He said bullying culture was common knowledge at the stadium.
“He continued to bully everyone,” she said. “People in the department and people all over the WRU knew about it, even people in the store.”
He added: “One day I was sitting in the car park at work and texted the line manager and told him everything.
“He resigned as soon as he heard me speak. “He found a new job immediately.”
Her allegations are among the most serious to surface after allegations emerged privately in March 2022 that a former Welsh Rugby Union employee had accused members of the governing body of joking about raping her and comparing her to Hitler.
The female complainant highlighted a culture of sexism and misogyny within the Welsh Rugby Union.
Thirty-six recommendations were made following an independent report, including governance, complaints handling, the union’s approach to inclusion and diversity, and investment in the women’s game.
The latest victim said he believed his case and others like him should be at the center of scrutiny into the WRU.
When asked, he said: “Yes, I’m really disgusted. You have to look at everything to see the whole picture. You feel like they swept me under the rug. I was a problem they really wanted to address and never brought to light.
“It changed every aspect of my life. I don’t go out, I have nightmares. I have a panic attack. “I’m not the problem.”
She said she decided to speak out 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 I want people to feel like they can speak out and not cover things up. “I didn’t feel like I could do it and that work could be a safe place.
“I hated this place. It was like living a nightmare. No amount of counseling or facilitation could get me back into that building.
The victim said he did not go to the police for fear he would not be believed and that the WRU was not subject to any ongoing police investigation.
The previous allegations centered on a man making sexist remarks about the Wales women’s team in 2020, claiming they didn’t know what it was like to be a professional rugby player because they only played “a bit of netball” and athletics.
It was also alleged that WRU staff used racist terms such as “p—” on the Zoom call and that this behavior 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.
This led to the organization overhauling its 12-strong board, which included former Wales internationals Claire Donovan and Jamie Roberts.
In response to the allegations, Tierney said: “Firstly, it is vital for me to formally apologize directly to the individual involved on behalf of everyone in the Welsh Rugby Union. “The behavior described is completely unacceptable and has never been and will not be tolerated.
“Our culture has not prevented such an incident from occurring, and although we know our Human Resources team has worked hard to provide support and care over a long period of time, some of our HR policies for handling such cases were not correct. We regret the use of non-disclosure agreements or similar arrangements in employment termination situations.” We said it before.
“More broadly, I would like to reiterate the full apology that I and others have previously expressed to all those affected by the issues and challenges highlighted in our last Independent Review.
“Although the individual wishes to remain anonymous, it is clear from the description of the circumstances that this is one of the cases examined by the Review, which has already fed into the proposals for change that we are committed to presenting. The review gives us a roadmap for continuous improvement, and you can find our current progress against the recommendations here.
“The review was carried out independently of the WRU. But we know that the Review Team has taken a lot of direct approaches and made an open call for people to talk to them, and we have cooperated and encouraged that. In particular, we made it clear that we would welcome anyone to speak freely to the Review Team, including those who have left the business and those who are subject to confidentiality regulations. Those who spoke to the review team did so confidentially. Therefore, we cannot confirm and do not know whether this person decided to speak to the Review.
“We continue to encourage people to access our reporting line if they feel uncomfortable speaking to line managers about any issue. As we have said previously, we understand that historic cases may come to the fore during the Review period and beyond. We welcome dialogue with anyone involved in or affected by any of the issues raised “We’re moving on so we can apologize to them and continue to learn and improve.”