Staff at a Superdrug branch have denied allegations that a female shop assistant was regularly spanked and groped.

Emma Evans, who is claiming sex and race discrimination and unfair dismissal against the company, told an employment tribunal that she was smacked with a leather belt and groped in a store room in Hammersmith in West London.

She also claims she was bullied by Asian staff in 2003.

She told the tribunal that the store’s deputy manager, Jude Anton, encouraged the behaviour, and that the "loathsome campaign" had forced her out of her job.