More than a month has passed since Roxanne Stewart and Melissa Biggs won their sexual discrimination case against one of Britain’s most colourful aristocrats. By rights, the two 28-year-olds should be celebrating by now.
Their former employer, 73-year-old Sir Benjamin Slade, was ordered to pay the pair aggravated damages amounting to £150,000 after his ‘appalling’ behaviour towards them when they went on maternity leave from 19th-century Woodlands Castle, near Taunton in Somerset, within four months of each other.
Sir Benjamin accused the women, who worked as event planners, of timing their pregnancies to ‘spite him’, withheld wages and maternity pay and forced them out of their jobs while inventing spurious claims against them.
During this highly distressing ordeal in 2017, Roxanne and Melissa both went into premature labour, giving birth to underweight baby girls. Yet the multi-millionaire baronet and former stockbroker, who can trace his family tree back to Alfred the Great, has yet to hand over a penny.
Sir Benjamin Slade, pictured at his home in Somerset, was ordered to pay out £150,000 to two female former employees after they won a sexual discrimination case against him
Melissa Biggs, pictured above with 18-month-old daughter Maisie, and Roxanne Stewart both went into premature labour, giving birth to underweight baby girls
His spokesman told the Mail some things had been inaccurately reported and added: ‘Sir Benjamin is very disappointed with the judgment and we are in the process of an appeal.’
Meanwhile, the women’s solicitor, Edward Aston, said the next step would be to take enforcement action against the flamboyant landowner, who once advertised for a ‘castle-trained’ wife to give him a male heir.
But it is clear Roxanne and Melissa’s two-year ordeal is far from over. Today, for the first time, the Mail can reveal in full the ‘incredible distress’ they suffered at Sir Benjamin’s hands.
As well as withholding wages and maternity pay, he threatened to report them to the police for theft, maliciously blamed the premature births of their babies on their smoking and drinking before pregnancy, referred to maternity pay as ‘f***ing entitlements’ and to the premature birth of Melissa’s daughter as ‘dropping’ her baby.
Tribunal Judge Colm O’Rourke described him as ‘arrogant and misogynistic’ at the hearing last month, and accused him of acting in a ‘high-handed and oppressive manner’ and rebuked him for being ‘unnecessarily offensive’ during the hearing.
The families of both women have told the Mail this week of their traumatic experiences.
Roxanne Stewart, pictured with daughter Berrie, and Melissa Biggs had worked for Sir Benjamin, who can trace his ancestors back to Alfred the Great, for two years
Melissa Biggs, left, and Roxanne Stewart won £150,000 damages on discrimination grounds
James Biggs says his wife, Melissa, was treated ‘as though she was worth nothing, as though she was a burden to Sir Benjamin simply for being on maternity leave’.
He added: ‘Sir Benjamin appeared to assume that, given his status, two women from a lower social background would never consider legal action against him.’
Meanwhile, Jack Faun, Roxanne’s partner, told how her pregnancy in 2017 came just a few months after she had suffered a devastating miscarriage at 19 weeks.
He said that from the moment she told Sir Benjamin of her pregnancy, she was ‘belittled and made to feel no longer a valuable employee’.
The women’s shared experience is certainly not what they expected when they applied to work for Sir Benjamin at one of his two Somerset country homes.
Nestled within 12 acres of private parkland, Woodlands Castle is a charming 200-year-old country house with a garden pavilion and manicured lawns, hired out to couples seeking a romantic wedding.
‘Whatever your dreams are, at Woodlands Castle we can make them come true,’ boasts Sir Benjamin on his website. The picture painted at the Bristol tribunal hearing, however, was more akin to a nightmare.
Roxanne, who lives near Bridgwater, Somerset, with partner Jack, 27, a dairy farmer, their 18-month-old daughter, Berrie, and her elder sister, Crystal, six, started working at Woodlands straight from school in July 2008, after taking part in a rural youth employment project.
She worked first as catering and bar assistant before being promoted to deputy manager in 2014, reporting directly to Sir Benjamin. After she gave birth to her first child in 2013, she placed her in full-time nursery care so she could return to work.
Woodlands Castle, a 17th century country house near Taunton, Somerset, which Sir Benjamin owns and hires out for functions
It was Roxanne who interviewed Melissa, who lives in Taunton with husband James, 28, an accountant, and their daughter, Maisie, for the post of administration assistant to Sir Benjamin in May 2015.
All was apparently well until 2017 when both women became pregnant. Melissa was due to give birth in November and Roxanne in January 2018, but Melissa suffered from a condition called obstetric cholestasis, which affects the liver during pregnancy, and gave birth eight weeks early in September.
A month later, Roxanne informed Sir Benjamin of her own pregnancy. According to evidence given at last month’s tribunal, the wealthy landowner told one of her colleagues that she and Melissa ‘had got pregnant together on purpose to spite him’.
In November 2017, Roxanne was not paid and Melissa didn’t receive her maternity pay.
When Roxanne complained, Sir Benjamin called maternity pay ‘f***ing entitlements’.
She was then suspended after being falsely accused of allowing catering firms to use the castle’s facilities for off-site events for which Sir Benjamin hadn’t been paid.
In evidence, she said she was told by Sir Benjamin that her suspension was a ‘sort of negotiation’ at a time when he was restructuring his companies for financial reasons.
‘I had an impeccable disciplinary record and nine-and-a-half years of loyal service,’ Roxanne said in evidence. ‘I was very upset, confused, shocked and stressed.’ A few days later, she went into premature labour, eventually giving birth to her daughter, Berrie, eight weeks later in December 2017.
Sir Benjamin Slade did not pay Roxanne in November 2017 and failed to pay Melissa for maternity leave. When Roxanne complained, Sir Benjamin called maternity pay ‘f***ing entitlements’
According to partner Jack: ‘We firmly believe the worry and stress of Sir Benjamin’s malicious behaviour had a huge part to play in her early labour. Roxanne was at her most vulnerable, and in these circumstances you would expect support from your employer, but she got the complete opposite. He continued to treat her in such a malicious way even after the birth.’
Roxanne was fired two days before Christmas 2017 — she received the hand-delivered letter on the day she brought her baby daughter home from hospital. To add insult to injury, the termination of her contract had been backdated to December 4 — the day before she
