Former Playboy Bunny Carla Howe 'sexually assaulted' in hospital while her eyes were bandaged shut after surgery
A British glamour model turned influencer has claimed she was sexually assaulted in a Turkish hospital while recovering from surgery.
Carla Howe, aged 35, claimed she had her eyes bandaged shut after undergoing a cosmetic procedure when she says she was attacked in her hospital room.
The former Playboy Bunny and boxing ring girl turned social media influencer had undergone a fox eye lift at an Istanbul hospital last Wednesday (October 29), intending to elongate her eyes.
But, while she was laid in bed trying to recover from post operation sickness, and unable to see due to iced patches covering her eyes, Carla says she sensed someone close to her bedside.
“I was lying in my hospital bed with iced patches over my eyes,” she told The Sun. “I could hear a noise to my right of the hospital bed. I obviously thought it must just be the nurses or something.” But, then she said she felt her duvet being lifted “around [her] breast area”. “I shot up immediately and shouted, ‘Excuse me!’,” she said. She added that she had been naked at the time.
She claims the person quickly exited the room as she screamed. “I immediately pressed the red buzzer and called the Turkish police,” she said.
Within 25 minutes, Carla says officers had arrived and were checking CCTV footage at Acibadem Taksim Hospital. “They came straight to the hospital and checked the CCTV,” she said. “They identified the suspect, who was apparently a hospital worker.”
Police in Istanbul then arrested a male employee in connection with the incident.
Carla says she has spoken to the British Embassy and the Foreign Office about what happened and is planning to press criminal charges. She added: “It is very scary. I don’t feel like, as a British female person, that it is safe in Turkey”
She went on to say that she has found it hard to think about what could have happened to her if she’d been asleep or sedated and unable to feel her duvet being lifted or scream for help. “If I didn’t feel the blanket being lifted, God knows what would’ve happened – I have an angel.
“If I didn’t wake up there and then – I’m assuming the worker thought I was unconscious because of the patches on my eyes – I could’ve been sexually assaulted or God knows what could have happened. I’m just glad that I was awake, because if I wasn’t, I don’t know what would have happened to me.”
As a result of the incident, Carla now believes that no male health staff should be able to go in to female’s private rooms. She also now wants to warn other women about the dangers of travelling abroad for surgery.
“The whole thing has left me terrified,” she said. “It was supposed to be a quick, simple recovery – not this.”
A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting a British national following an incident in Turkey.” The hospital and Turkish police have both been approached for comment.