Rylan Clark branded a 'prince' as sends sweet message to X Factor pal Lucy Spraggan and says it's 'took me a while to process'

Rylan Clark has shown his support publically to Lucy Spraggan after she told how she was raped by a hotel porter while competing on The X Factor in 2012. Lucy said the attack took place after a night out celebrating fellow contestant Rylan's 25th birthday at a Mayfair nightclub.

During the night out, which was attended by members of the ITV talent show's production team, Lucy said she fell unconscious and was escorted back to the hotel by a member of the production team, where a porter offered to help get her to her room.

However, he later used a "traceable keycard" to enter the room and attack her. She said. "I woke up the next day with this sense of sheer dread. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that level of confusion since. I knew that I’d been raped, but I could not process that. So I put my clothes on and went into autopilot."

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Lucy, who lives in Manchester and was raised in Buxton, told the Guardian she felt let down by ITV and the production team who were 'unprepared' to deal with what had happened. It comes as the 31-year-old speaks about her ordeal in her new memoir, Process: Finding My Way Through.

In response to the issues raised in the book, in a statement, ITV said it had the "deepest compassion for Lucy" and that the production companies were primarily responsible for the duty of care towards all of its programme contributors.

It added that it is "committed to having in place suitable and robust oversight procedures to ensure independent producers employ the correct processes to protect the mental health and welfare of participants. We have evolved and improved these oversight procedures since the events in question."