Gym employee groped woman from behind as she lifted weights - but didn’t realise she was filming

A woman was groped at the gym in what she says is a distressingly regular occurrence - but this time it was captured on camera.

The 22-year-old fitness instructor called Fern shared the video on her TikTok account where it quickly went viral. She explained in follow-up videos that she was filming herself doing squats when the man grabbed at her butt. She captioned the video “please idk what to do, he’s always doing this.”

tik tok

Tik Tok

Some people in the comments claimed, without evidence, that it was staged.

But others said it was a classic attempt to victim blame. One person neatly summed up the impossible position women find themselves in, saying: “Men: Why don't you have proof? Also men: It's staged, it didn’t happen.”

Personally, we’re not sure why a man would agree to take part in a staged video where he’s viewed by millions online as a harassing pervert - so we’re assuming it’s legit.

In subsequent videos, a tearful Fern clarified that she did not stage the video, and said that the man had been regularly harassing her, leading her to attempt to capture the incident on film.

She also claimed that the man is an employee of the gym, and that previous complaints from her about the harassment had failed to get him removed.

Tik Tok

However, the TikTok, which has been viewed more than three million times, seems to have done the trick, as Fern later shared a message from the gym saying the man’s employment had been “terminated.”

In May we reported on a fitness influencer who was left horrified during a workout session when she noticed a masked stranger filming her from behind.

In a voiceover to the video, she says: “He denied taking a picture which made me feel crazy for thinking it.”