A Sunday newspaper has reported claims that Al Porter was inappropriate with a psychiatric patient during a hospital visit in 2015.
The Irish edition of the Sunday Times quotes a former St Patrick’s patient who alleges that the TV and radio presenter “groped and kissed him”.
The editor of the publication, Frank Fitzgibbon, tweeted that it is understood Mr Porter “rejects the claims”.
ST News: Lawyers for Al Porter sought to prevent ST publishing claims by a former psychiatric patient that the comedian groped and kissed him while visiting a hospital in 2015. It is understood that the comedian rejects the claims, although he refused to comment yesterday
— Frank Fitzgibbon (@SoFrankFitz) November 18, 2017
In response, St Patrick’s Mental Health Services said in a statement issued to Her on Sunday that it was aware of allegations “of inappropriate behaviour made against Al Porter by a service user while engaging in an awareness-raising event”.
It continued: “St Patrick’s Mental Health Services applies the highest standards of supervision to all activities involving service users.
“No allegations, complaints or concerns have been made to St Patrick’s Mental Health Services by service users or staff in relation to these matters, and the organisation has only been made aware of the allegations regarding Mr Al Porter this morning through a Sunday newspaper.
“The organisation would encourage the people making these allegations to report them directly to the Garda Siochana and to the organisation itself so that they can be thoroughly investigated.”
The statement concluded: “St Patrick’s Mental Health Services is committed to providing the highest quality mental health care and to ensuring the safety of its service users.”
TV3 also decided to cancel a planned rerun of the finale of Blind Date – a show fronted by Mr Porter – on Saturday evening.
In a brief statement seen by Her, the station said it is “aware of the allegations made against Al Porter”.
It added: “TV3 takes any allegations of this nature very seriously and decided it would be inappropriate to broadcast the repeat of the final episode of Blind Date.”
TV3 said it would not be making further comment “at this time.”
On Saturday, Today FM told us that Mr Porter is taking “personal time” away from his lunchtime radio show.
“In light of recent events, Today FM and Al Porter have agreed that Al will take some personal time from his lunchtime radio show,” the station said.
In recent days, several people have claimed on social media that Mr Porter has in the past behaved inappropriately towards them.
The Irish edition of The London Times furthermore ran a front-page story on Saturday on the same topic – citing four, named individuals who allege that the TV and radio personality harassed them.
