The head organiser of the LGBTQ Pride parade in London is under internal investigation over claims he abused his position, including by buying luxury perfumes with food and drink vouchers donated by a sponsor.
Christopher Joell-Deshields, who has been chief executive of Pride in London since 2021, is facing a series of allegations from volunteer directors and others.
They include misappropriation or misuse of gifts or company funds, behaviour damaging or potentially damaging to the company’s reputation, harassment or bullying of personnel and a “serious breach” of bullying, harassment and finance policies.
Sources said that Joell-Deshields had been suspended by a newly constituted board of London LGBT Community Pride, the community interest company behind the parade.
Joell-Deshields declined to comment on the allegations but appeared to reject the new board’s authority to suspend him.
He said: “I remain in my role as CEO of Pride in London and as a director of London LGBT Community Pride CIC.
“The current legal and governance matters relate to the organisation itself. These matters are being addressed through the appropriate channels, and it would be inappropriate to litigate them in the press.
“Nothing in this statement should be interpreted as an admission of any allegation, nor does it comment on any other individual. For that reason, I will not be making any further comment at this time.”
A spokesperson for the community interest company said: “The board of directors is aware of a number of allegations and is taking action to investigate these claims.
“It would be inappropriate to comment further while these investigations are taking place, save to say that we take such allegations extremely seriously, and remain committed to upholding a safe, open and inclusive organisation that is compliant with its legal and governance obligations.”
Pride in London is financed by a £625,000, five-year grant from the London mayor as well as its own fundraising.
Concerns about governance and the conduct of the chief executive were raised with the board by a company director in July.
This was followed by a formal whistleblowing disclosure by a group of volunteer directors at the end of last month. The new board was set up last week.
According to a leaked copy of the whistleblowing disclosure, the volunteer directors complained that they had been “wholly unable to discharge our duties because of persistent obstruction and unacceptable actions of the CEO”. They also warned of a lack of accountability and transparency over spending.
Among the allegations was the potential misuse of some of the £30,000 worth of food and drink vouchers provided by an unnamed sponsor for volunteers.
According to the volunteer directors, the sponsor’s head of ethics and compliance had written on 18 February to the legal director at Pride in London to warn that the company’s fraud systems had detected that two accounts had used £7,125 of the vouchers on luxury items.
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The items included an Apple HomePod, Apple AirPods and cologne, including Creed Aventus, which has a retail price of at least £165, and Burberry Hero, which starts at £118 a bottle.
According to the whisteblowers, the sponsor advised the legal director that “the pattern and nature of the transactions strongly suggested personal – rather than organisational – benefit”.
One of the two accounts flagged was that of Joell-Deshields.
Pride in London commissioned external lawyers to investigate, according to the directors’ letter, and an interim report was written.
According to the letter, the report states that Joell-Deshields claimed the vouchers were used for gifts and prizes for raffles and that the HomePod was used in the office and at “pop up” events.
The volunteer directors claimed that no such raffles took place last year and that they asked to see evidence of the unopened and unused items. They claim not to have seen the HomePod in the office.
The external law firm is said to have recorded that Joell-Deshields felt the victim of a witch-hunt and had expressed “concern about the intentions of the people who had instigated the investigation”.
The legal firm has provided Joell-Deshields with further time to provide corroborating evidence for his explanation.
Further allegations against Joell-Deshields in the directors’ letter include overseeing a “toxic” culture and making inappropriate comments on WhatsApp to a disabled volunteer who he described as “obnoxious”. He is also said to have invited a former volunteer, who had been dismissed for bullying, to serve as his runner. The director of people intervened to prevent the appointment.
