Tracey Spicer vows to out 40 sleazebags in media industry
TRACEY Spicer is working with police to collect evidence about 40 sexual predators in the media, the majority of whom she says are ‘household names’.
NSW
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VETERAN journalist Tracey Spicer has vowed to bring to justice up to 40 “household names” in the media and entertainment industry she claims are guilty of sexual harassment and assault.
In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Spicer has vowed to “name and shame” Australian perpetrators and is working with police to collect evidence.
She said yesterday she has been contacted by around two dozen women victims but was inundated with complaints this week when the #metoo social media campaign launched online which encourages women to share their experiences.
“It is an absolute tsunami of sexual assault, intimidation and abuse. It is absolutely horrific,” Spicer told The Daily Telegraph.
“There are 30 to 40 alleged offenders so far and I would say the vast majority of them would have more than one case against them.”
Spicer said the vast majority of offenders were household names. “Whether that is in a television presenting capacity or as an executive, they are very well-known people who have been in the media for a long time. That doesn’t mean they are all historic cases, some are, but many of them are still offending to this day. There have been perpetrators in pretty much every one of the past four decades.”
Spicer, 50, detailed her own history of abuse at the hands of executives in her memoir released earlier this year, The Good Girl Stripped Bare.
Spicer worked at both Channel 9 and the Ten Network as a TV reporter and news reader. She mentors up and comers in the industry through the Women in Media initiative and has been in close contact with a female police officer on her investigations.
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“I bought a specific notebook two days ago to write down all of the evidence in and that notebook is already full,” she said. “This is not people collaborating. This is people contacting me from vastly different areas who haven’t spoken to other people so there is a clear pattern of behaviour that is being shown here.”
She added: “We are not going at this like a bull at a gate, we are being very careful and we are bringing everyone into the tent — police, lawyers, unions, managers and obviously women who have been affected because we want to do this properly.”
Spicer said she had been told no statute of limitations would apply to the offences she had identified, meaning cases that may be decades old are still able to be reported.
“It is incredibly encouraging because it is still an offence and was at the time.
“We need to lay charges all throughout that trajectory of history,” she said.