A Labour Parliamentary candidate for north Shropshire is calling for a national pub chain to provide disability training to its staff after they kicked his daughter out, mistaking her brain injury for being drunk.
Graeme Currie, from Bagley near Ellesmere, contacted the Advertizer after his daughter Grace, who has a cognitive impairment and is supported at all times by a personal assistant (PA), was "forcibly escorted" out of the JD Wetherspoons Shrewsbury Hotel after the staff assumed that Grace was drunk, despite having only one alcoholic drink.
Grace was with an '18-35 Meet Up' and made her way to order another drink where she was accused of being drunk.
"The staff made the assumption based on the fact that when tired, Grace has difficult with word finding and pronunciation," said her father, Mr Currie.
"She also has mobility issues affecting her gait, therefore they discriminated against her based only on her disability.
"Grace was then forcibly escorted outside by a large, male bouncer and not allowed back in for her bag or coat. Her phone was in her bag and her PA was elsewhere reading in the bar.
"Luckily Grace was able to remember the PA’s name and the bouncer went to get her but even then would not let Grace back in for her bag."
Grace's PA Netty Brook found her outside looking extremely vulnerable, scared and with no idea what she had done wrong.
Grace, 24, was hit by a car in 2010 and was left with severe brain injuries.
Mr Currie said: "As parents we were devastated when our bright, intelligent 17-year-old daughter’s life was catastrophically changed for ever in a car accident. She was hit by a driver who did not see her and was at the point of death for many months. Grace’s recovery has taken a long time and is still ongoing.
"Part of her recovery is to be able to socialise with others her own age, as the accident robbed her not only of her own skills and abilities but of most of her friends. She was not able to go to university as she planned and has had to work fiercely to carve out a new future for herself in art.
"Much of the work we have done with physiotherapy, psychology and speech therapy is developing her independence – this was destroyed by the inhuman and degrading treatment she received at the hands of Wetherspoon staff."
"There are so many things that could have gone wrong with this. It is horrifying that any young woman would be escorted out of a pub in this manner without a phone or bag, but for Grace this was much more dangerous. She has severe difficulties which are not visible. She has no lower vision, she has mobility problems and falls often, she has reading and word finding difficulties. She has virtually no memory and very little in the way of problem solving abilities.
"It was also very fortuitous that Grace’s PA had decided to stay in the same pub but at a distance from Grace or we cannot imagine what would have happened."
The pub chain has confirmed that they will be meeting with Mr Currie.
Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said:“At around 9.30pm on Saturday, door security at The Shrewsbury Hotel alerted the pub manager to the refusal of service of Grace Currie.
“The pub manager spoke with Grace and her companion, realising during the conversation that there had been a misjudgement.
“The pub manager apologised to them both about the standard of service they had received, welcomed them back into the pub (which they both agreed to), offered them both a drink and they carried on with their evening.
“Subsequently, Grace’s father – who contacted the pub this morning – has been invited to the pub, as the pub manager is keen to speak with him face-to-face, about the incident.
“We, again, apologise to Grace for the mistake and hope that this incident will help our staff manage future similar scenarios with better understanding.”
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