A British politician has been charged with two counts of sexual assault involving two girls on the Groucho, a London member’s membership owned by the founders of Hauser & Wirth gallery.
Patrick Spencer, a member of the opposition Conservative Get together and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich, will seem at Westminster Magistrates’ Court docket on 16 June for the alleged incidents of sexual assault, which came about in August 2023, in line with an announcement launched at present by the Crown Prosecution Providers.
A Conservative Get together spokesman instructed theBBC that Spencer had been suspended. “We’ve taken quick motion,” they stated. “Patrick Spencer MP has been suspended from the Conservative Get together, and the whip withdrawn, with quick impact. The Conservative Get together can not remark additional on an ongoing authorized case.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson instructed The Artwork Newspaper that Spencer’s expenses are unrelated to accusations of a “critical prison offence” on the Groucho that resulted within the membership having its licence suspended in November, forcing it to briefly shut.
“As a separate investigation, officers are investigating experiences of a rape, which allegedly occurred at Groucho Membership on 13 November. A 34-year-old man who was arrested on suspicion of rape in reference to this investigation stays launched below investigation,” the spokesperson says. The membership reopened in January.
Since 2022, The Groucho has been majority-owned by Artfarm, a hospitality firm run by Iwan and Manuela Wirth, the husband and spouse duo behind the mega gallery Hauser & Wirth. Artfarm companies, together with The Groucho, usually are not related to Hauser & Wirth, a spokesperson for the gallery has beforehand acknowledged to The Artwork Newspaper. The Groucho is managed individually to the Artfarm portfolio.
A spokesperson for Artfarm didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
