Gang Fatale members quit following rape allegations against one of the collective
The alleged incident occured in 2015
A member of the formerly ten-strong club music collective Gang Fatale has been accused of raping a woman in the summer of 2015.
The woman, Ashtart Al-Hurra, has published a detailed article on mixedspices.co.uk, with a content warning for “Description of r*pe and after affects, mention of r*pe, abuse, assault, an*l sex”, headlined “My r*pist is a DJ and I outed him online: here’s what happened”.
The article on mixedspices.co.uk includes screenshots of the collective’s co-founder Neana, who is not the accused, responding to the allegations from the Gang Fatale Instagram account. One response is to a friend of Al-Hurra posting the accusation on Instagram in 2017, and the other is a more recent conversation he had with Al-Hurra that took place this year on Instagram. He said a public apology would be made by Gang Fatale, who host a monthly show on NTS and released the 'Portal' compilation in March.
In response, Al-Hurra requested he follow through on his promise of releasing a statement. She also requested Neana donate the amount he charges as a booking fee to the North London Rape Crisis, a charity where Al-Hurra received counselling to deal with the trauma of her experience.
At the time of publishing this article, Gang Fatale has not released a public statement. Mixmag has contacted Gang Fatale and the accused for comment.
Following the allegations coming to light, Bleaker, Sheen and Neana have quit Gang Fatale, announcing their decisions on Twitter.
Basile has released a note on Twitter condemning “any bad behaviour, any act of violence, sexism” and saying “I’m still trying to set up a good talk with the other gf member and [haven’t had] a chance yet. a public statement has to be done.”
Speaking to Mixmag, Al-Hurra said she would like to see people in the music industry start to take greater responsibility for their actions and the actions of their industry peers.
She said: “I hope for the people who do see [her article] who aren't in the activist community, or aren't women or queer people, will realise how deep sexism in the industry really goes, and how bad the effects really are, and it's not just angry feminists shouting about privilege all day. People are suffering real pain, and I'm just one of many.
“I hope it helps people realise how deep and serious an issue it is, and that people really need to not only just talk about stuff, but actively take action and do things, and show gestures of trying to create change.
“It would be good to see NTS' stance on it as a radio station that was a competitor with Radar, and how they would now deal with having a rapist and rape apologist on their station.”
In April, an article by Al-Hurra posted on mixedspices.co.uk detailed harassment she was subjected to while working at Radar Radio. Other allegations have also made against the station. She also claimed Radar Radio brought in HR representatives from Eacotts, a company that deals with Radar Radio’s parent company MASH Holdings Ltd (also parent company to Sports Direct) and made her sign a non-disclosure agreement stating she would “not reveal any of this information to anybody without the permission of [Radar Radio founder] Ollie Ashley or a member of Eacotts”.
The following day Radar Radio suspended broadcasting. No public statement on the future of the station has been released since, and Al-Hurra has not been contacted since breaking her non-disclosure.
Al-Hurra has started compiling links to relevant resources and information that abuse survivors can access at mixedspices.co.uk/support. You can donate to Rape Crisis England & Wales here, and Solace Women’s Aid here.
Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Staff Writer, follow him on Twitter