I don’t normally court controversy and tend to keep away from anything which the mainstream press report due to their utter immoralistic reporting and disinformation pumped across various channels but this last week after reading a few reports about someone who I have worked with in the past has been quite disturbing.
Neil Fox has been accused of sexually assaulting “victims” including one at his former workplace Capital Radio. Now, reading this story they claim that when Neil was a DJ at Capital Radio he kissed a girl and forced his tongue in her mouth, as well as other reports of having sex with girls in the station’s record library (amongst other allegations). One of the stories claims that it was one of the girls that used to hang around the radio station around 1988-1991. Now, thing is this. I was one of these girls that hung around the studios at this time. I’m utterly ashamed of it these days and would strongly urge that if you feel the need to hang around places – DON’T do it if you are under 18 years old. Now my reason for saying this isn’t the fact that the person you are hanging around to see is predatory. In fact in all the years I religiously went up to Warren Street to sit outside and wait for DJ’s to emerge I never ONCE saw any of the DJ’s become predatory. However, a LOT of the girls that did hang around at that time were very, very forthcoming and didn’t think twice of grabbing DJ’s in some very inappropriate areas. There were never just 1 or 2 girls, there were upwards of 10-20 girls at any one time bombarding DJ’s when they exited the building.
There is also a claim that one of the girls (probably the main one in this case or the one who made the initial claim) that she was left alone with Neil Fox in the underground car park after asking her to take some things to his car. NO. This would not be correct, simply because the girls were like a herd of sheep. If one girl went to his car then all her friends would have followed too. Not once were any of the girls singled out in the time I was part of the crowd as inevitably they ALWAYS moved around like sheep together.
As for her knowing where he lived and went to his flat. Yes, lots of girls knew where the DJ’s lived because quite a few of them had either followed them in cars to where they lived, or found out illegally with the help of insiders. It was common knowledge of where they lived and more often than not these girls would visit en masse to visit the DJs. Thankfully I was not like that and refused to follow them to where they lived. I think the furthest I got was on the train a DJ had boarded but got off halfway. More often than not because where we got off, there was a chippy outside that did bloody awesome chips (I had my priorities straight, obviously). But it was disgusting behaviour.
A lot of these girls were indeed under the age of 18 and would literally lust after these guys who were either in their 20s or early 30s. Neil Fox was one whom girls got utterly obsessed by because he was really friendly and really quite bubbly.
In 1991 however I got the opportunity to work at Capital Radio in a voluntary capacity. I was kind of an assistant that would do pretty much anything to learn the job. When these girls found out that I was working there I would often get death threats, and followed on the tube home with girls stalking me with daggers in their eyes. I stayed there for about 18 months and moved on but in all that time when I did work with Neil Fox, I can honestly say, hand on heart that all we ever had was what is now named (thanks I’m a Celeb) as “flanter” just purely flirty banter. Yes he would touch you but never inappropriately. It was more in a friendly flirty way. The guy even asked me out on a date while one of my friends was with me when I bumped into him on my way home at Warren Street but again, there was no touching and certainly no groping. At the time it was just a young guy flirting with a young girl, end of. All this propaganda of what he’s supposed to have done, if true (very unlikely) would have been encouraged by the girls themselves. They were certainly not innocent of provoking these young guys (as they were then) and the thought of them coming out now to claim they were abused sickens me to my core.
Also as for him signing “Kissy Kissy” when asked for an autograph. Oh come on! All DJs sign something flirty if they’re a flirty kind of person. I once had a conversation with another DJ about something and his words were “Promises Promises” but I’m not going to run to a solicitor complaining that he was being forward. It’s utterly pathetic. Neil Fox once signed a skirt for me for a charity raffle. He signed on my knee. Wow. If I had fancied him I imagine I too would have asked him to sign my bum but I wouldn’t be reporting him 20 years later for doing it. You did it at the time and no doubt all your friends around you would have cheered him on and laughed with you about it. But you can’t go complaining about that 20 years down the line. If it upset you that much at the time why didn’t you complain about it then? I know, it’s because at that time you were bigging it up with all your “posse” no doubt.
The media are as usual making Neil Fox out to be the predator. Those of us that were around the place at that time have seen quite a different thing and no doubt, the guy will be dragged through the court and lose his career through claims from someone who would have encouraged him to get closer to her. She still has her career (if it’s who I think it is).
I know no girl/woman deserves being attacked, but what was back in the 80s/90s and was just flirty (and encouraged by the girl 100%) now seems to be tainted with accusations of assault. The guy was no Sa Vile that’s for sure. But in my time I’ve heard all sorts. One girl told me that Neil Fox had made her pregnant – which he hadn’t, she was just a totally over the top, completely obsessed fanatic, living in a fantasy world. The girl was my best friend (and wasn’t pregnant, nor saw him on any kind of intimate moment because her mum wouldn’t let her out on her own). How’s them apples. Same is happening again here, but 20 years later, accusations with really no substance . Shame. I’ve seen it from both sides and it’s not all black and white. Don’t believe everything you read.
Addressing the Balance - Neil Fox Trial
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