Benjamin Cohen, the founder of the world’s largest LGBTQ+ media outlet, PinkNews and its chief operating officer and Cohen’s husband Dr Anthony James have been accused of sexual misconduct against their staff. A BBC report said that around 30 former PinkNews staff members saw Anthony James kissing and touching a junior colleague who they say appeared too drunk to consent.
Dr James kissed and touched a junior colleague who was drunk after a work event, according to witnesses, and Cohen invited a staff member to come “back to his” and smacked another on the bottom at a Christmas party. It has also been reported that female members of staff were urged to act as surrogates for the couple.
The BBC claimed to have interviewed 33 people who worked at PinkNews between 2017 and 2024 for its documentary, PinkNews: Behind Closed Doors, which was released on Tuesday.
Five former employees said that they witnessed Dr James groping and kissing a junior member of staff outside a prominent London pub where employees had gathered following a PinkNews event. They added that the employee was “too drunk to stand or talk” and “unable to consent”.
“Ben was extremely drunk to the point he fell off his chair and then asked me out of earshot of my other colleagues whether I wanted to go back to his … because Anthony, his husband, wasn’t there,” one of the former staffers said.
“Cai Wilshaw, former head of external affairs at PinkNews, said: “You had this sort of dark cloud in the office sometimes when Ben was there, that made it really difficult to actually enjoy working there. We worked together quite well, but it is clear that he is a very, very difficult character, and sometimes overly so in a way that really impacted people who worked with him, BBC reported.
