Sexual harassment: Victim sends message of support to other girls
- Published
Ms Forose started working part-time in Scoopy Sweets and Ice-cream shop in Armagh in March 2017
A woman who was sexually harassed by her ice cream parlour boss as a teenager has urged other girls to report similar behaviour.
Alona Forose was 15 in 2017 when she worked part-time in Scoopy Sweets and Ice Cream in Armagh.
She has been awarded more than £54,000 after the Court of Appeal upheld an earlier industrial tribunal's judgment.
Ms Forose said Eugene Geraghty, who was then in his late 50s, inappropriately touched and smacked her.
He was subsequently convicted of common assault and handed a risk of sexual harm order.
Ms Forose said: "I found Eugene Geraghty's behaviour dirty and distressing. When I challenged it, he just said I was lying.
"I'd like other girls to know that you don't have to put up with harassment, you can challenge it and you will be listened to."
Ms Forose had taken a sexual harassment and discrimination case to an industrial tribunal, which found in her favour.
Mr Geraghty appealed the judgment, but the Court of Appeal upheld it and confirmed the awarding of £54,335.84.
The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, which supported Ms Forose, said her case should serve as a warning to employers that workers, no matter their age or employment status, should never be subjected to sexual harassment or discrimination.
Chief Commissioner Geraldine McGahey described the award to Ms Forose as "a substantial amount of money".
"But the reality of it is no amount of money takes away the harm, the distress, the mental and physical anguish that this girl suffered," she told BBC News NI.
"More importantly what it says is this kind of behaviour absolutely wrong.
"No one regardless of your age, let alone a school girl, should encounter such vile sexual harassment - whether that be the physical form or the verbal form, and it was both in Alona's case," she added.