Invercargill councillor Nigel Skelt accused of sexually harassing 18-year-old employee

Allegedly asking an 18-year-old employee if she would be keen to do jelly wrestling naked has landed Invercargill city councillor and ILT Stadium Southland manager Nigel Skelt in trouble, despite attempts by the stadium trust to keep it under wraps.

In her letter of resignation, the teenager alleged Skelt had sexually harassed her while she was working at Stadium Southland.

When she was asked to go in for an interview, he told her to “look nice”, and after she started working there, a series of conversations had left her feeling increasingly uncomfortable.

“He then brought up the conversation of jelly wrestling and proceeded to say comments such as ‘you’d be keen to do that naked’ and that it was ‘by nomination’.

“In the same conversation, he made comments about me being a ‘bikini and beach-type of girl’.”

On another occasion, Skelt made her sit in his chair while he knelt down beside her and showed her a confidential presentation about the Southland Museum.

“When on the topic about the tuataras, he began to talk about them reproducing which made me feel very uncomfortable.”

At another time, while she was serving a customer, she said Skelt reintroduced the topic of jelly wrestling and told the customers she was ‘very good at it’.

“These events left me in tears, and as a result, I don’t feel comfortable or safe returning to work alongside Nigel Skelt at ILT Stadium Southland.”

Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark was told of the incidents in the resignation letter in February and worked to resolve the complaint by issuing a ‘serious warning’ to Skelt, directing him to get psychological counselling, and closely monitoring his behaviour.

He also offered the teenager a lump sum of $3000 to cover lost income, counselling for the trauma, and the option of working somewhere else at the stadium or at ILT.

The offers were made on a ‘confidential basis’ — ‘so neither party is at reputational risk or harm’.

The teen accepted the lump sum and the counselling but declined the option of another job.

On April 17, it was publicly announced Skelt would be retiring from his stadium job on medical grounds and for personal reasons.

During the process, Clark declined to talk about the situation.

As recently as last Monday, he told the Otago Daily Times he would not make any comment about Skelt and said from what he understood, Skelt continued to be a councillor.

Asked why Skelt was not present at a recent council meeting, Clark said the councillor had issued an apology due to a family member undergoing surgery.

In a letter to Clark, a parent of the teenager said they hoped he would learn from the incident and put measures in place to prevent it ever happening again.

“Quite frankly, it was very obvious at the meeting that both yourself and [redacted] were more worried about looking after Nigel and the stadium’s reputation than in actually worrying about what damage this incident has already done to a young girl, and the potential for it to happen again to another young girl.”

Attempts to contact Skelt have been unsuccessful.

An external independent review of how the matter was handled by the stadium board is now taking place.