The Crown production company Left Bank Pictures accused of mishandling a sexual assault complaint

The Guardian

Holly Bourdillon and Laura Johnson, two female former staffers at the award-winning independent production company, were freelancers hired to work on the Netflix series White Lines when the sexual misconduct took place. Bourdillon was sexually assaulted by Chris Croucher, then an executive producer at Left Bank Pictures. Johnston said Croucher physically assaulted her. Both assaults took place in the central London edit suites that Left Bank hired for post-production staffers. The Guardian reports Croucher, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2020, pleaded guilty to sexual and common assault in January this year and was later sentenced to three months’ curfew and a five-year community order. Bourdillon filed a formal complaint, but both women allege that Left Bank executives acted to protect Croucher and minimize the severity of his criminal behavior. “The whole reason I went and told his boss is because I didn’t want it to happen again. I didn’t want it to happen to other people,” said Bourdillon. A spokesperson for Left Bank said the women’s claims about its handling of the matter were “inaccurate” and “completely mischaracterize the seriousness with which Left Bank Pictures took the complaint from the outset."