A French restaurateur has been fined £1.5m for sexual harassment and assault in an exclusive report.

The French court said in October 2016 that the alleged perpetrators had attacked a woman at a restaurant in the southern town of Alfano, a town of 12,000 people on the outskirts of Lyon.

The woman had a “deep-seated” fear of men and, when she spoke to the restaurant’s management, they refused to take her complaints seriously.

The restaurant owner was later found guilty of the offence and paid a total of €1.7m.

French law does not require people to have an insurance cover, so the woman was left in the dark about the damages she might face.

She appealed to France’s highest court, and in February 2017, the court ruled that it could be made public if it is “necessary to protect the public interest”.

Alfano’s Restaurant owner has admitted to having a sexual relationship with a female employee, who is now 26.

He is expected to pay a €7,000 fine.

Alfao Restaurant in Alfino, France is accused of having a sex relationship with two women and a male employee.

Source: Alamy Stock Photo: Alireza Kashgari/APA spokesperson for the court in Lyon said: “The complainant received a court summons for damages in the amount of €5.8m.

It is therefore necessary to make the public record available to protect her interests.”

The court ruled in favour of the complainant, which means the court can be made available to the public if the public “is at a reasonable level of knowledge”.

In the case of Alfiano, the woman had an insurance policy, which covers her personal injury claims.

She had not previously filed a claim with the insurance company, the spokesman added.

The statement added that “the investigation concluded that the complainant had a deep-seared fear of sex”.

The case was also criticised by the French government, which called the court’s decision “deeply worrying”.

The French government’s statement said that the “court found that the sexual relationship between the complainant and her former employer was an affair, and the woman would not have been able to speak about it to the authorities had she been aware of this situation”.