Lucy Spraggan says she felt like a “corporate problem” after she was raped during a night out while competing on TV talent show The Factor in 2012.
The Canterbury-born singer, 31, was just 20 when she was scouted to take part in the ITV series over a decade ago and sailed through to the live shows after impressing with a repertoire of self-penned songs performed on her guitar.
Her reality TV dream came crashing to a halt however after week three when she was raped by porter Soby Jon, who later pleaded guilty to the attack and was jailed.
Now, in a new interview with Elizabeth Day on her How To Fail podcast, Spraggan has blasted the aftercare she received from the show’s production company Freemantle and ITV, saying it “deflated any ounce of self-worth that I had left”.
Breaking down in tears, she added “what makes me sad about that was how let down I was. I just feel sorry for myself. I wish I could have marched in and said ‘don’t worry we’re going to take you somewhere, you don’t have to worry about anything.’
“There was, and still is I imagine, a huge failure in duty of care towards me, not just my physical self but my mental self.
“After the live final of X Factor 2012 I was not contacted again by ITV, by Freemantle or by Syco. I wasn’t offered ongoing mental health support, I wasn’t offered work. I wasn’t offered a secondary platform to kick start my little row boat off of and restart my life and my career. More important my life, because that destroyed it.
“If the question is ‘who failed?’ it’s clear to me the people who looked after me at that time failed me.”
She explained how she feels like “I have been in prison for a decade. Everytime somebody said ‘are you that girl off the X Factor?’ My name, my face became synomous with The X Factor and those words to me were synomous with my sexual assault.”
“I was plucked from the biggest moment of my life in the most traumatic fashion. I didn’t grieve for the opportunities that I lost.”
A spokesperson for ITV told the Standard: “We have the deepest compassion for Lucy and everything she has endured as a result of this horrific ordeal. We commend her resilience and bravery.
“The X Factor was produced by Thames and Syco, who were primarily responsible for duty of care towards all of its programme contributors.
“ITV as a commissioning broadcaster is committed to having in place suitable and robust oversight procedures, with a view to ensuring that independent producers employ the correct processes to protect the mental health and welfare of participants.
“We continue to evolve our own duty of care processes on programmes we produce to ensure that there are appropriate measures in place to support contributors before, during and after filming. In an event of such a distressing nature, welfare and support towards the victim would always be of the utmost priority.”
A spokesperson for Fremantle added: “The serious sexual assault suffered by Lucy Spraggan in October 2012 was a truly horrific criminal act for which the perpetrator, who was not connected with the programme, was rightfully prosecuted and imprisoned.”
