Tom Jones claims he was pressured by a sex pest as he says abusers 'target men too'

Sir Tom Jones has claimed he was targeted by a sex pest as he spoke out following the Harvey Weinstein scandal in Hollywood.

Telling BBC Radio 5 Live's Afternoon Edition that harassment and abuse was not just the preserve of the film industry, he also said that men were targeted the same way women were.

He suggested that in the music industry, sex pests tried to exchange sexual favours in exchange for advancing a young star's career.

He revealed: "Things have always happened in the music industry as well.

"There's been people complaining about publicists and different things they've been expected to do to get a record contract, just like a film contract."

Asked whether it was something he had experienced, Sir Tom replied: "Yes. At the beginning, yes."

"There were a few things like that. But you avoid it. You just walk out... But what's tried on women is tried on men as well."

The Voice coach said the encounter made him feel "terrible".

He added: "But then you think, 'Well, I've got to get away from this person and it can't be like this'.

"You should know that yourself, you don't do things just because you think, 'I should do this'. Your own mind will tell you that. Not just in showbusiness, but in anything you're in.

"There's always been that element there that people with power sometimes abuse it, but they don't all abuse it, there are good people."

When questioned further about his own experience early on in his career, he said: "It wasn't bad, just somebody tried to pull... it was a question and I said 'No thank you'."

He added: "Things happen in showbusiness, and sometimes things are covered up and then they come to light and other people come forward - it's like taking the cork off of a bottle.

"Things come out that maybe should've come out years ago, who knows. But that's the way it is with showbusiness, you are in the public eye, and that's it, you have to take the good with the bad.

"But justice will out. If you've done something wrong you've got to pay for it, or prove that you haven't done anything wrong."

Speaking in 2009, around the release of the Joe Meek biopic Telstar, Sir Tom's former bass player Vernon Hopkins described an encounter with the infamous music producer Meek (who shot dead his landlady and himself in 1967).

“There was the time when he tried touching Tom up. That didn’t go down too well,” he said.

“I remember loading the equipment in the van outside Joe’s and Tom running down the stairs shouting, 'He just touched my b*******! That b****** grabbed my b****!'"