Children's hospitals return donations over sleazy black tie dinner for top people in London

LONDON, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Two children's hospitals in London returned donations to a charity Wednesday after reports of a sleazy money-raising dinner emerged.

Around 130 tall, slim and pretty young women were hired as hostesses for the all-male black-tie event. The hostesses were given black outfits and allegedly told to wear matching black underwear and 'sexy' shoes to parade in front of guests from British business, politics and finance at the start of the event.

Politicians in the House of Commons were told one of the organisers of the charity event at the exclusive Dorchester Hotel in London, high-flying businessman David Meller, has resigned from the board of the government's Department for Education.

There have also been calls for recently appointed Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi, who attended the dinner, to resign. He said in a media interview he didn't stay long enough at the event to comment.

Today Zahawi posted a message on social media saying: "I do unequivocally condemn this behavior. The report is truly shocking. I will never attend a men only function ever."

A report in Britain's leading business daily, the a Financial Times, told how hired hostesses were groped by men at the evening event. Female reporters from the newspaper went undercover as hostesses and filed a report which sent shockwaves though London's business and political circles.

The two undercover reporters claimed some women were repeatedly propositioned by the male guests, with one man allegedly exposing himself. One of the reporters said she was groped several times.

One of the reporters, Madison Marriage, said hostesses were not warned that they might be sexually harassed. She said in a television interview she was groped "several times" and "numerous other hostesses" said the same thing happened to them.

"It's a hands up skirts, hands on bums but also hands on hips, hands on stomachs, arms going round your waist unexpectedly," she said.

The Presidents Club, who staged the event, said it was "appalled" by the allegations and would investigate.

The world famous Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital (GOSH) in London said all donations it had received from the charity, the Presidents Club, would be returned.

Education Minister Anne Milton told MPs in the Commons allegations of the behaviour at the dinner were completely unacceptable.

"It is quite extraordinary to me that, in the 21st century, allegations of this kind are still emerging. Women have the right to feel safe wherever they work," she said.

In a statement GOSH said: "We would never knowingly accept donations raised in this way. We have had no involvement in the organisation of this event. All monies raised in our name go to support vital work. However, due to the wholly unacceptable nature of the event we are returning previous donations and will no longer accept gifts from the Presidents Club Charitable Trust.

The Dorchester Hotel in London's fashionable Mayfair said it was deeply concerned and would also look into the claims. Enditem