The Details of West Ham’s Co-Owner, Who’s Been Accused by Multiple Women of Sexual Abuse, Keep Getting Worse

On Monday, the BBC and the U.K.-based Times reported several women are accusing David Sullivan, the co-owner and joint chair of London’s West Ham Football Club, of sexual misconduct and predatory behavior. Some of these allegations date back decades, with all of the victims saying they were in their late teens or early twenties when the abuse occurred. 

The 77-year-old is one of the richest men in the U.K., having originally made his fortune in the 1970s by cashing in on the business of porn—before, that is, the age of the Internet. It’s around that time that he consequently made his way into media, where he became what the BBC calls a “powerful gatekeeper” for women seeking modeling careers, and would offer to help their careers if they had sex with him. 

“He took away my innocence,” one woman, speaking under a moniker (many of these women stayed anonymous out of fear of retribution), told the BBC and the Times. She recounts being 20 when she went to Sullivan’s estate in 1999, hoping to score some glamour modeling work for one of the magazines he had a large influence in. After saying he’d give her a “little bit of work,” he added that if she engaged in sex with him, she’d become one of his “regular girls.” 

“This is the bit that will haunt me forever,” she said. “He lifted his pinky in the air—his little finger—and he went, it’s all right, I’ll only put it in a little bit.” Despite her protests, and her saying she was on her period, she remembers being taken into a bedroom and him having sex with her. “I was very suicidal for many years,” the woman said. “Up until very recently, I struggled with my mental health.”

Through the BBC/Times investigation, the outlets uncovered at least seven women were subject to such harassment—and at least eight who also reported the misconduct to police. A few days after publication, it was also revealed that, since 2023, under a “temporary agreement,” Sullivan has not been allowed to meet with any women’s or youth players from West Ham teams while the Football Association pursued a complaint dating back to 1981. 

“These latest revelations are utterly horrifying,” British Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said of the news. Currently, she’s demanding to know why “no further action was taken” after the FA launched its investigation.

Sullivan has “categorically” denied all allegations, calling them “factually incorrect and entirely false.” But, well, this is a guy who’s known as the “king of porn,” who was charged and convicted with making immoral earnings via prostitution in the 1980s; and who’s called himself a “collector of women, like some people collect stamps.” Oh, and by his own admission, in the 1990s, he was 40 when he paid for sex with a girl he thought was 16 or 17. 

Days before the news broke, Sullivan stepped down as the team’s joint chair, saying he needed to “apply [his] full energy and attention on fighting these false allegations.” And although he remains today the largest single shareholder for West Ham, an independent football regulator, which has called the allegations “extremely serious,” could force him to sell his shares.