‘Hands down dresses and up skirts’ – just a regular day at work for women in the City?

Why, in the supposedly well-regulated City of London, are stories of sexual harassment still rife, asks Joy Lo Dico

There were more who wanted to speak out – and it’s telling that the extent of the complaints, stretching back to 1998, have only just emerged (Getty)

It’s not a blip in the market or a black swan event. Allegations of harassment in the high-stakes world of finance and business are persistent. The latest focus is Odey Asset Management. Sex in the City? Please – it ain’t that glamorous.

The Financial Times’s extended report on Crispin Odey, the founder of the hedge fund who is also known for vociferously backing Brexit – as well as his friendship with Boris Johnson – is gruesome reading.

It contains allegations from 13 women who have worked or had professional dealings with the firm, with gritty details such as hands down dresses in the back of taxis, as well as hands up skirts and Odey forcing a female friend to put her hand on his penis. He is also accused of masturbating on a female entrepreneur after a business meeting. New women in the office, the report claims, were advised to take the stairs rather than risk getting in a lift with him. Odey denies the allegations.