Karen Johnson endured months of sexual harrassment while working as a 14-year-old shop assistant in the early 1980s and now reveals her story for the first time – she says workplace culture must change. Tony McDonough reports

 

2017 may prove to have been a watershed in attitudes towards sexual harassment. Laura Bates’ Everyday Sexism project started the ball rolling in 2012 but it was the slew of accusations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein which really catapulted the issue into the public consciousness.

There remains a huge degree of denial and hostility towards those who now seek to shine a light on the issue and there remains a long way to go. But for women such as Karen Johnson there is also a sense of relief that they can at least feel free to tell the stories that, in many cases, go back decades.

Stirred memories

In Karen’s case, it took her back to the beginning of the 1980s when, aged just 14, she was an aspiring model and part-time shop assistant. But it wasn’t in the modelling world where Karen’s vulnerability was preyed upon.

Last year Karen told Liverpool Business News the story of her horrendously violent marriage and the legacy of physical pain that it has left her with.

Now recent revelations and the subsequent #metoo social media campaign has stirred memories of her earlier ordeal while working on Saturdays, and sometimes after school, in a sportswear retail outlet in Liverpool city centre.

‘Quite vulnerable’

“It was more men than women that came into the shop. I was also working in the modelling industry so, on one level, I was clued up about how men could be – but I was still quite naive,” said Karen.

“I didn’t think there was any danger. Looking back I was actually quite vulnerable.”

The manager of the store was of a similar age to Karen’s father and, at first, she felt perfectly safe around him. But it didn’t take long for that trust to be shaken.

She explained: “He was very kind at first. He took me under his wing and he was very complimentary. He always said how beautiful I looked and I just used to laugh it off. And that was mainly nerves. Even though I was also working as a model I was still very shy.

 

“He always used to send me down to the stock room in the early morning to make sure it was tidy and he would always follow me down. It got to the point where he would brush himself up against me on a regular basis.

“He would come up behind me and reach for a box on the top and would press his crotch into my back, pretending that is was accidental. It made my skin crawl and made me feel sick.

“But then I would think ‘maybe it is just me and I am getting it wrong’. I just didn’t think it was happening.”

Escalating behaviour

As so often happens with sexual harassment, Karen’s tormentor became emboldened and his behaviour began to escalate and become more serious.

“I was trying to avoid being in the storeroom on my own but it was difficult to do that and it got to the point where he would trap me in a corner and try to kiss me,” she added. He would tell me ‘I fancy you so much and you look older than your age’.

“He told me I had the body of an 18-year-old and how he was not getting attention from his wife.

“I can still smell his breath now. He used to get that close to my face. And I would back off and back off and I would be laughing and pushing him off. There were so many things going through my head. He would always say at the end ‘oh I was only joking’ but I felt really intimidated and really scared.”

Self-doubt

Karen was terrified and bewildered and also questioned her own actions and wondered whether she was to blame, not an uncommon reaction from those at the receiving end of abuse and harassment.

She said: “I asked myself ‘was it my fault for egging him on?’. It came to the point where it got touchy-feely. He would try to put my hand on his private parts and say ’this is for you’. I had no experience of anything like that.

 

“I was then thinking ‘I really need to do something here’. I had the fear that one day he would lock the door and rape me. He was saying things such as ‘you want it’. But I didn’t want it, not at all.”

Karen’s ordeal went on for months. She wanted to tell her parents but felt embarrassed and was also worried about how they would react, adding: “My dad would have killed him. I knew then that if I said something they wouldn’t let me go out of the door. I left the job and never mentioned it to anyone.”

Long way to go

She says it is a positive thing that people felt able for the first time to reveal their experiences but said there was still a long way to go. She believes employers need to do much more to minimise the risk of harassment of staff – both male and female.

“There needs to be a lot more training, particularly when people first join a company,” she said.

“I would say to anyone now in the same situation, report them straight away. Don’t hesitate. Name and shame. Don’t let someone else have that kind of power and control.”