(NEWZIMBABWE) Zim gardner sues Cadbury heiress
Zim gardner sues Cadbury heiressAccused ... Felicity Loudon with her dogs outside Pusey House estate
by Daily Mail
06/11/2010 00:00:00
ZIMBABWEAN Leonard Rwodzi, 41, is suing the heiress to the Cadbury chocolate empire, Felicity Loudon, for alleged abuse at her £27million country estate in Oxfordshire. The great-great-granddaughter of company founder John Cadbury is faces an accusation of unfair dismissal from her former gardener who claims she made his life a misery.
Rwodzi, 41, who worked for Loudon for eight years, alleges that she:
Racially discriminated against him by shouting: ‘Don’t you look at me with your dark, evil, African eyes.’
Told him his wife Annah, 30, was ‘too fat and lazy’.
Tried to make his wife become her maid when she did not have a work permit.
Hired ex-Army security guards to watch his every move after allegedly dismissing him unfairly.
A friend of Rwodzi said: “His tribunal case could be for more than £100,000, but it’s justice he wants.”
Other former workers have claimed up to eight gardeners were sacked by Loudon, 61, in a single fortnight – and they allege numerous butlers and maids have received the same treatment.
The security firm hired to monitor Rwodzi is also taking legal action against Loudon, claiming she failed to pay bills totalling £7,500.
The saga began in 2001 when Rwodzi, a former horticulturist for the Harare city council, fled increasing violence under President Robert Mugabe’s regime.
He came alone to Britain to claim asylum and soon became a £26,000-a-year head gardener at Pusey House – a 14-bed, Grade II listed mansion, set in 650 acres near Faringdon, Oxfordshire, and presided over by Loudon and her second husband John Loudon, 74.
The heiress, who favours only white flowers in her gardens, was initially so delighted with Rwodzi that she allowed his wife to join him in his free two-bed cottage on the estate in 2003, and a son was born to the couple the next year.
Then, in 2008, Loudon her husband provided the Rwodzis with £8,000 to fund the escape of their elder children, a girl and boy, now 12 and 11, from Zimbabwe, where they had stayed with relatives.
But the problems began soon after.
A former employee at the estate said: “Loudon can have terrible moods. With Leonard, she wrongly told people he was an illegal immigrant, and he didn’t feel he could refuse when she got him, a non-smoker, to puff a cigar and dressed his son as a girl for adverts for her luxury design firm. He just put up with it. But she did not like him spending time with his family.
“She said his wife was too fat and lazy. Last October Loudon told Leonard she wanted his wife to work as her maid. She said her work would pay off the £8,000 the Loudons had “lent” Leonard to bring his children to Britain.
“Leonard refused, saying he thought the money was a gift, and that his wife did not then have the correct immigration status to work. Loudon could not forgive him.”
Matters came to a head in April. The former colleague said: “He just looked at her, and she suddenly said “Don’t you look at me with your dark, evil, African eyes”.
“Soon after that, Leonard was told to resign. He refused, but was told to leave his cottage within the month. Loudon hired a security firm and moved them into the cottage next to his until he left.”
Rwodzi refused to comment at his new home in Farringdon, London. But Loudon told a friend that, after she helped move the Rwodzi children from Zimbabwe, the garden “started to suffer”.
She added: “Leonard’s mood turned ugly and threatening. The once sad asylum seeker, so grateful for a plate of food and a chance to live and work in one of England’s most beautiful gardens, shows his real colours.”
A lawyer speaking for the heiress said: “The allegations are strenuously denied.”
Labels: FELICITY LOUDON, LEONARD RWODZI
posted by MrK @ 3:58 PM
2 Comments:
I used to work for the Loudon's too, it was all fine and rosy to being with but for everyone that works for them it always turns sour in the end, I hope one day she really gets the comupence she deserves!!
My parents used to work for this lady when she was married to her first husband. I was 16 at the time. From what I remember, she was very difficult to please. Her husband, Mr, Wigan, was also quite a caracter! I remember we going on holiday and when we came back, all our stuff was put in the garage and new employees were living in our cottage. We were left homeless. Horrible people to work for!
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