Three women who previously worked with internationally renowned architect Sir David Adjaye have accused him of sexually harassing and assaulting them.
All the women are black single mothers in their 40s, UK-based news organisation Financial Times (FT) reported on Tuesday, July 4.
“All three women knew [Sir David] Adjaye before their employment and had friends and acquaintances in common with him,” FT reported.
The news organisation interviewed colleagues, relatives and friends of the victims before publishing the article.
“They said they felt compelled to come forward about their experiences in order to prevent other women from encountering similar abuse and to make public the architect’s private behaviour,” it reported.
“In all three cases the Financial Times has worked to corroborate their accounts by interviewing colleagues, family members and friends who were confided in by the women, as well as reviewing contemporaneous emails, documents and text messages.”
Two of the women said they moved to Ghana in the middle of 2018 to join the renowned architect as he started working on the National Cathedral of Ghana.
They helped set up an office for Adjaye and Associates in Accra.
“Maya and Gene (not their real names), who had both brought their children to Ghana, said that the Accra office regularly failed to pay their salaries on time and was slow to secure their work visas.
“They were both left struggling for money and uncertain about their immigration position, according to interviews with the women, their friends and their families, as well as documents including bank statements.”
But lawyers of Sir David Adjaye have denied the accusations, according to the FT report.
“Adjaye’s lawyer confirms the three met for dinner, discussed relocation issues and that Maya and Gene came up to his apartment ‘for a drink to end the evening’.
“But Adjaye ‘strongly denies making any sexual advances towards’ them and ‘categorically denies forcing [Maya] to enter his bedroom and sexually assaulting her’.
“Adjaye’s lawyer also denied that Adjaye met or gave cash to Maya the day after and says Adjaye’s company has no record of any such payment; Adjaye did make a withdrawal that day, he said, but only ‘to pay for a police escort to assist with driving through traffic’ for a site visit.
“The lawyer cited ‘extremely cordial’ text messages over the following weeks and months between Adjaye, Maya and Gene, which he said was evidence of the positive relationship between the two employees and their boss.”