Tourist reveals holiday nightmare in five-star Caribbean resort

A TOURIST has revealed how she resorted to locking herself in her room after being sexually assaulted twice in a luxury, five-star resort.

British tourist Gemma Khan said she was attacked twice in a luxury Caribbean hotel.

A BRITISH holiday-maker says she was sexually assaulted twice while staying at a luxury resort in the Caribbean.

Gemma Khan said she was forced to lock herself in her room during her time at the five star hotel in the Dominican Republic.

The 25-year-old waived her right to anonymity and told how on the first occasion two locals tried to untie her bikini as she left the swimming pool.

Two days later she claims a member of staff stroked her leg in the souvenir shop, The Sunday Mirror reports.

The incidents left her feeling too scared to leave her room but when she took it up with a Thomson rep she said she was met with a “blank expression”.

The holiday-maker said she locked herself in her hotel room after the nightmare assaults.

Gemma said: “I put on a pair of shorts and a croptop and I started walking back to my room. These two men came up to me speaking Spanish.

“One grabbed my shorts and was trying to undo my bikini. I pushed him away and called out for one of the security guards. I then hit him over his shoulder with a beach bag and ran to my room.

“By the time I had reached my room, less than two minutes later, I was so angry I was upset. No one had come to help me. I got glanced at by security and left to defend myself.”

Just two days later the former Wolverhampton University student says she was assaulted again — this time by a member of hotel staff in the gift shop.

Gemma, from Halesowen, West Midlands, added: “A man came up and pressed up against me. I stepped back into the corner of the shop and he started feeling my leg. He then offered me a purse to keep quiet about it.”

Catalina Island in the Carribbean. Pic: Mike Smith. Dominican Republic West Indies Travel

The football centre manager paid nearly $1800, along with three friends, to stay in the five star Be Live Collection Marien hotel for two weeks.

She said she had been told by holiday operator Thomson that the private resort would be safe for women.

But when Gemma told the hotel she says she was met with a “blank expression” and told to fill out a form.

Gemma spent the second week in her room — too afraid to leave.

She added: “It was a stunning hotel.

“There was fencing and the grounds were patrolled. We were warned locals could be over friendly and it was not safe to walk on our own outside the hotel grounds.

“But I was left feeling as though it was my own fault. I was treated like trash.”

She added: “It was a nightmare, the worst holiday I’ve ever had.”

A spokesman for Thomson apologised and said they would carry out an investigation after speaking to Ms Khan.

This article originally appeared in The Sun and was reproduced with permission.