Layla Smith, 18, said she felt she had no choice but to quit her job at a Newcastle cafe, after what she described as a lack of support in standing up to the man, who she said was old enough to be her grandfather.

Ms Smith said he often made sexual comments to her in front of other customers and her colleagues.

"I'm enraged," she said. "I am so angry - this should not be happening.

"I want to go to work and be safe, I don't want to have my physical appearance commented on or stopped and told about sexual arrangements with someone I don't know.

"This is still happening in places where you don't think it would and it's not okay.

"It shouldn't be me that had to make the move. He's still there. It's like he won because no-one else had the guts to tell him to stop."

Ms Smith's former boss and the cafe owner was "disgusted and taken aback by what was said to Layla".

"I have spoken to the acquaintance on a number of occasions, at least two or three times," he said.

"I believed I fulfilled my duty of care. I advised Layla to take it further and that she'd have my full support. I can't fire someone I don't employ."

Ms Smith said she met the man on her first day at work.

"He said 'Who is this? Wow look at you, you're gorgeous'," she said.

"He came across as cocky. I just thought 'A simple hello would have been nice'."

She said he would stop her while she was working and make comments such as 'You look very sexy today', 'Look at those gorgeous long legs', and 'Look at that tiny little waist'.

She said he also called her 'sex on legs' and asked her to meet him after work.

When she swapped her shorts for pants he told her 'I like it better when you show those lovely legs and that arse'.

"I would freeze and give off a nervous laugh," she said. "He'd say 'Stop laughing, I'm serious'.

"There was no way it was a joke and even if it was, it was still disgusting.

"Other times I would just say 'No'. I was holding myself back from giving him a piece of my mind.

"I also didn't want to say something in a workplace - I wanted to stay professional."

She said none of the customers or her colleagues intervened.

"That's what made me most uncomfortable - there was company when he was saying these things."

She said she visited the cafe one day with her boyfriend and the man looked at her chest and readjusted his glasses. "He opened his eyes wide and said 'Wow, would you take a look at those'.

"I couldn't show my face there without being objectified."

Ms Smith said she was walking back from the external bathroom another day when he approached.

"He said 'I don't like your boyfriend, he's just a boy but I'm a real man. I'll show you how to do it. I won't hurt you, I'll be gentle with you, I'll make you feel good'."

She said he told her to take down his phone number.

Another time he told her he would save her number as his electrician and asked her to send him a photo before she took a shower.

She told a coworker, who told her former boss.

"He asked me if I was OK and talked to him [the customer] the next day," Ms Smith said.

She said the customer did stop speaking to her, but this only lasted two weeks.

She said she had returned from leave following an injury when he approached her on the street as she was walking to buy more supplies.

"He asked me why I had been away and ... what he could do to help," she said.

"I said 'Nothing, I'm being treated by doctors. He then said 'I'll pay for it, I'll give you money'."

He approached her a few hours later and repeated his offer, promising to "be gentle with you".

She told a colleague, who told her former boss.

"My boss said to me that obviously he cares about me because I'm his staff, but to just go to the cops," she said.

"He told me he wasn't going to do anything because he [the customer] was not going to listen. But that was no excuse.

"I felt he didn't care about the situation enough to go and talk to him again."

Ms Smith didn't return to work. She said she called Waratah police station and spoke to a female officer, who told her it was a "grey area because you don't have any evidence".

The Victims of Crime Assistance League's Kerrie Thompson said workplace harassment, especially of young people, was still common and "not acceptable".

She said it often went unreported because workers felt like they didn't have enough evidence and it came down to "he said, she said" situations.

She said workers would often choose to leave instead of push for action.

"They don't want to keep turning up to work and being subjected to harassment and abuse and just snide remarks," she said.

"It's very wearing on a person's mental health."

Ms Smith urged people experiencing or witnessing harassment to speak up.

"Stand up and defend someone if you see they're uncomfortable," she said.

"If you hear disgusting words come out of a man's mouth to a young girl, say something.

"Sexual harassment happens everywhere and it needs to stop."

For help: 1800 RESPECT