PinkNews bosses accused of sexual misconduct

Staff have told us they were shouted at and belittled by Mr Cohen, and that there was a “toxic” culture at the company.

“He can be quite brutal in the way he speaks to you,” said Damian. “When things go wrong he’d come down on you like a tonne of bricks and so you were just in this constant state of emotional flux.

“He put extreme pressures on me to the point I would go home and cry. It caused issues in my own personal relationship with my partner, and then [Benjamin] would love-bomb me and I would think everything was alright.”

Cai Wilshaw, former head of external affairs at PinkNews, said: “You had this sort of dark cloud in the office sometimes when Ben was there, that made it really difficult to actually enjoy working there.

“We worked together quite well, but it is clear that he is a very, very difficult character, and sometimes overly so in a way that really impacted people who worked with him.”

Some staff members also said they had witnessed what they called “misogynistic” behaviour.

Several people said that on occasions young, female members of staff had been asked to act as a surrogate for Mr Cohen and Dr James.

They say that often the request was delivered as a joke, but that it had made people feel “awkward and uncomfortable”.

One anonymous staff member called it “creepy and sleazy”, while another called it “part and parcel” of how “misogynistic” PinkNews was.