Terry Prone has revealed how an ‘Irish radio broadcaster’ sexually harassed women in the workplace back when she launched her career in the 1960s.
The columnist appeared on The Late Late Show last night alongside a number of women to discuss the abuses of powerful men within the media, in wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Speaking on a panel alongside former Senator Fidelma Healy Eames and journalist Kitty Holland, Terry revealed that an Irish radio host would sit beside her naked from the waist down in studio when she was just a teenager.
“I can remember at 16 going and doing work in the entertainment business and I was immediately taken aside by older women who said: ‘Don’t get into the lift with ‘head the ball’…
Terry Prone on encountering men like Harvey Weinstein when she started working in Irish media & not buying Weinstein’s excuses #latelate pic.twitter.com/BIFHDl647o
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) October 13, 2017
“They said: ‘He will take you down to the basement, he will put one finger on the button so that the lift can’t move and his hand will go up your skirt.
“There was this guy, if you were doing an interview live on the air, or if you were more likely reading a short story or something, he would come in and sit down beside you and he would remove all of his clothing below the waist,” she revealed.
“He was a professional broadcaster. He’s dead, we don’t have to worry about it. The odd thing was that it became a kind of idiosyncrasy, it was kind of like local colour – that’s what he does – terrifying. And then what you have is the kind of PR around people like Weinstein.”
Speaking about Harvey Weinstein, who was fired from the company he co-founded late last week after several women made allegations of sexual misconduct against him, Terry said, “This is not dinosaur, this is scumbag.”
“No there wasn’t a lot of it about. I was there. It was never at that kind of violent, disgusting, persistent, power-grabby level.”
