Assault by retail staff - WWYD?

[HeTouchedMe]

At the weekend I was the victim of a mild (as mild as these things can be) sexual assault by a member of retail staff in a large chain store. It is being appropriately handled by police, and I have since discovered that the person in question is a registered sex offender.
The store manager handled it appallingly, he was seriously out of his depth. I have had an equally poor response from an online website contact form which assures me it has been referred to a senior manager and the HR department. But essentially it's says 'Sorry this happened, thanks for letting us know, it's all confidential from here, and goodbye'. Not even a phone call.

Can anyone advise how best to handle this with the retail store/company? How far would you take it? Where can I turn to for advice?

What do the police advise? If you really want to get a response then of course go to the media.

So sorry this happened to you 💐

It's an awful thing to have happened. What do you want from the company in question? As it stands at the moment, the police are dealing with the actual assault and perpetrator, so the company will be unlikely to be able to comment really as its subject to an ongoing legal investigation.

I've not managed to discuss it with the DC handling my case yet, but yes I will ask his advice.

I feel that I can't go to the media due to the nature of the offender. A quick google shows he really is not a very nice person. I would prefer to stay as anonymous as possible.

I'm sorry this happened to you. Can you contact their head office directly? Failing that, tweet that they are apparently happy to employ registered sex offenders (which is true and therefore not libellous) and fail to protect their customers in the event of a repeat offence.

I'm not really sure what I want. An admission to how badly it's been handled I guess. And some kind of assurance as to actions they are taking, not regarding the member of staff, but speaking to the manager, asking me for details of what happened so they can take appropriate action....not sure. But doing nothing feels sort of wrong.

Thank you for replying.

Sorry x post, forget the Twitter bit.

Sorry to read what happened to you. But I really think you need to give police time to investigate the case. What can the store do at this point? Innocent until proven guilty and all that.

I am perhaps getting a little ahead of myself. It is on my mind a lot though and finding it hard to think of anything else. The offender has been charged, if it's relevant.

Not sure what you want unless it's a gift voucher? It's a police matter surely? I can't imagine the store want to say anything apart from sorry this happened. They won't know more than the police investigation.

Really, really don't want a gift voucher!!!

Ultimately the buck stops with the retail operations director and you should be able to find an email for his/her office fairly easily. Alternatively the regional director.

If the police are involved I'm not really sure what you want the company to do? They won't speak to you, they will dismiss / keep the member of staff based on the outcome of the police investigation / trial?

As for yeeeting about the company employing sex offenders - where would that get anyone? Retail is not a job that requires any kind of DBS checks, it's not illegal to hire someone on the sec offenders register ( they probably didn't even know)

That's good he has already been charged. In your place I might ask for victim support via the police. Or some counselling via gp. It's understandable it's on your mind as its only just happened. Hopefully he will get prosecuted. And at that point i would be looking to take it much further with whoever hired him in the first place.

Send an email to the CEO, you deserve an apology at the very least.

I would contact the CEO. You can normally find the email address by googling chief exec email and the company name. The people who respond to CEO emails on behalf of the chief exec are usually much better at dealing with complaints.

This sounds awful and I can imagine that the way the manager and company have handled this has made the incident much more stressful/traumatic for you. Often people's reactions to similar incidents can have a big impact on how easily you cope with it.

I think you need to raise it at the top as the manager and customer services need to be made aware of how badly they handled this, regardless of what steps the police are taking.

Sorry this has happened to you and you are having to deal with complaining to the company ontop of the assault. Well done for reporting to the police, not everyone is brave enough

Sounds like not only has something awful happened to you but that experience has been compounded by the store's ineptness in their response to you. I have had a similar experience (not sexual assault or even a store), but I can totally relate. You must feel angry and frustrated. The store is thinking more about covering their arse, than your feelings and trauma. They probably can't find the right words to apologise, without apologising and causing themselves legal grief, but more can and should be done and you should get a phone call, in the very least.

I would go to the top and complain and failing that complain to their board.

I would imagine the company have been told to keep quiet. If the employee is denying that he did this thing they can't apologise, this needs to be dealt with by the police

Thank you for the replies, it is really helpful to see what people who have no emotional involvement think.

Of course they can apologise for what happened! An apology is not the same as an admission of liability, it is about showing regret for something, regardless of whether you are at fault. That and an assurance that they are investigating what happened is the least they can do.

I think its too early to expect anything from the retailer. If he is convicted you might get an apology as they may do a statement to the press.

However, I think you need to step back from contact with the retailer as it might cause problems in the prosecution. You might need to give evidence and presumably wouldn't want to undermine it if, for instance, the retailer offered you some form of compensation before a trial. This is all if buts and maybes based on too much time watching TV.

It might do you more good to talk things through with a doctor or counsellor rather than a faceless retail suit who will have to feed you a line approved by the bosses or whoever. And even though you say it was "mild" sexual assault people don't have a correlating reaction based on how the crime is graded by the police.

That's a good point re implications for a trial stiff. This could go on for months and months :(

I asked what you wanted from the company because until you know what you want from them, you're just stabbing at the dark.

Looking at this from the outside, you've been through something pretty traumatic, and you're currently looking for something to do, to feel in control. You're looking for solidarity from the police and the company. Which is all very understandable, but it's going to take time. Do you have much support in real life? There are a lot of every good charities out there that could offer you qualified support while you try and work through your feelings and reactions to this.

Basically - it's horrid that he was employed by them as a registered sex offender. They wouldn't have known that though unless they had run a DBS, and you can only run a DBS in very specific circumstances, for which most retail positions don't qualify. There isn't really much the company could have done if he failed to declare it. They also can't really do too much about it until the police investigation is concluded, as that takes priority. They can't comment until they've done an investigation. Which basically means you're stuck in no mans land until someone else completes their part.

I agree with the above. Leave it with the police. Once that is over then contact the company.