Leeds University grad attacked in hotel room after ‘faulty locks’ let intruder gain access

A University of Leeds alumna has spoken out after she was attacked in her hotel room by an intruder when the door’s locking mechanism allegedly failed.

Ellie Turner, 23, who was visiting her former university city to attend the annual Better Days Festival at Beaverworks, was staying at the Ibis budget hotel at Leeds Royal Armouries, close to Leeds Dock.

The incident occurred on the early hours of Saturday 3rd May, when a stranger entered her hotel room without her permission. Ellie said that she asked the intruder to leave, who then physical assaulted her, leaving her bruised and feeling “extremely distressed and unsafe.”

Ellie said that the incident has left her “deeply shaken”

It later emerged the woman had reportedly been intoxicated and had mistaken Ellie’s room for her own. Due to this, Ellie later opted not to press charges, but she described the incident as leaving her “deeply shaken.”

Questions were also raised as to how the intruder had been able to gain access to the hotel room. Upon further inspection, Ellie was shocked to discover that the door to her hotel room appeared to fail to automatically lock upon being closed, meaning that her room was accessible without a key card.

During the incident, Ellie said that she contacted the hotel reception three times for urgent assistance, but her calls went unanswered. This, combined with the seeming failure of the door’s automatic locking system to prevent the intruder from gaining access, prompted her to lodge a formal complaint against the hotel.

“It was genuinely the scariest experience of my life, waking up and just seeing a complete stranger just standing in my room,” she told The Leeds Tab, saying she would “hate for anyone else to go through this too.”

The Royal Armouries in Leeds, close to the hotel where the incident occurred, via Geograph Britain and Ireland under Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0

However, Ellie was disappointed by the hotel’s response. In her complaint, she provided both photographic evidence of the bruises allegedly sustained in the assault, and a video demonstrating that the door did not automatically lock upon being closed.

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Despite this, after the matter was escalated to the company’s vice-president of operations, the company responded to claim that the hotel room had been functioning normally and that the lock was not faulty.

Ellie was not offered compensation for the distress she experienced as a result of the incident. While she was issued a refund for the cost of her stay, she was informed that this should not be construed as an admission of liability on the part of the hotel.

Ellie argued a refund was not adequate, saying that she was “honestly disgusted” by the response she received.

“I’m not backing down with the hotel,” she said. “They offered me one night’s refund at first, I argued against this and suddenly both nights were refunded and hit my bank account the same day.”

“I think that I downplayed the seriousness at first, but I do think it is the type of event where most people would expect some form of compensation.”

Accor and ibis budget Leeds Centre Royal Armouries Museum have been contacted for comment.

If you have been affected by the contents of this article, University of Leeds students can find counselling and wellbeing support here. Leeds Beckett students can find support here. Information about local support for Leeds residents can be found here.

You can also contact the Samaritans at any time by calling 116 123. Alternatively, you can contact Shout, a 24/7 text messaging service, by texting the word “Shout” to 85258.

To access support about sexual assault, you can call Rape Crisis England & Wales on 0808 500 2222, The Survivors Trust on 0808 801 0818 or The Hazlehurst Centre – West Yorkshire Sexual Assault Referral Centre on 0330 23 0099.