CBI boss: I don’t know where rape happened

The CBI’s new director-general admitted yesterday that she did not know which of the organization’s foreign offices was the center of a rape allegation.

Rain Newton-Smith is struggling to salvage the post-acquisition business group amid a series of troubling sexual claims — and vowed to try to win back members who left it en masse.

But when asked to explain how she would handle one of the CBI’s international outposts where an alleged rape victim was working, she said she was allegedly assaulted by two male colleagues.

“I don’t know what office that is,” Newton-Smith said.

And in further comments that are likely to raise eyebrows, she said of the victim’s harrowing story, “I also listened to the voice of the survivor in that article when they said the CBI is doing a great job.”

The incident is one of two alleged rapes at the center of the CBI scandal. The other is said to have taken place at a 2019 summer boat party on the Thames.

They are among a series of allegations by more than a dozen women of misconduct at the CBI, revealed to The Guardian, which are being investigated by police.

Newton-Smith, who has only started work a few days after replacing Tony Danker, said she was “devastated” by what had happened.

But when asked if she had met the victims yet, she said: ‘I don’t know who those people are. There is clearly business for the City of London Police and we have supported them with everything they need.”

She also denied that the job was a poisoned chalice, adding, “We’ve been losing members over the past few weeks, I’m not going to deny that. But I am determined to win them back and I am determined to bring new companies into this organization.”