Allatta figlio in pubblico, cacciata da locale

Mother claims cafe owner branded her 'disgusting woman' for breastfeeding in public






By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 6:02 PM on 18th May 2011



A mother said she is planning to sue the owner of a cafe after she allegedly told her she was a 'disgusting woman' for breast feeding in public.

Lisa Willis, 36, was feeding her 10-month-old baby daughter Connie in the White Coffee House in Harwich, Essex, when she said the owner ordered her to leave and go to a public toilet.

Mrs Willis, who has three other children, said Coral Cox humiliated her in front of 20 other customers before following her out into the street and throwing rubbish from the table into her car.

The shocked mother from Ramsey in Essex, said: 'She stomped over and said "stop doing that", she didn't even use the word breastfeeding as if it was a dirty word.

'I was shocked and looked at my daughter Olivia to see if she had been doing something she shouldn't, then the penny dropped she was talking about me breast feeding.

'I have heard of people being asked to leave premises, I have heard of customers complaining, but I've never heard of people being screamed at and being told they were a "disgusting women" being followed out in the street and having the contents of our table, empty drink cups, thrown into my car.

'I am traumatised by what happened. I don't consider myself to be a sensitive person but I was in tears, she was inches away from my face screaming at me. It was a verbal assault.'
Trouble flared at the White Coffee Cafe at about 10.30am on Monday. Mrs Willis took her two-year-old daughter Olivia and baby Connie to meet up with a friend and her two-year-old daughter for a chat.
Mrs Willis, who is married to husband Matthew, 40, an IT consultant, said she struggled to find a table in the busy cafe so sat in the bay window, turning her chair to speak to her friend and feed her baby.


Coffee house: Mrs Willis says she was sitting in the bay window when she was confronted

Co-owner of the cafe Coral Cox, 51, claims that a waiter told her male customers had complained about a woman with her 'boob out' and she went over to speak to the nursing mum.

Mrs Cox, a mother-of-two and grandmother-of-two, said: 'She was breast feeding but unfortunately she showed the whole of her boob. It was all out.

'Two of my regulars had complained and they didn't want to sit there and drink their coffee with a lady with her whole breast out.

'She didn't do it in a dignified way. She didn't cover herself up in anyway and pulled her chair right round so that she was in front of everybody. She was obviously an exhibitionist.

'So I went up to her said: "Excuse me would it be possible for you to cover yourself up whilst you are breast feeding".
'She stormed up and said "Where am I suppose to feed my child?" and I said the toilet, if you feel you want to get your whole boob out you should go to a toilet.

'She said she wouldn't be coming back and I said good. I do not want a year-old suckling in my cafe. It was so embarrassing.'
She denied she told the nursing mum to stop feeding and leave and there was no problem with customers breast feeding discretely in her cafe.

She said: 'I breastfed myself but in a dignified way of covering yourself up whilst you do it in front of other people.

'But she sat herself right in the middle of the restaurant and portrayed (sic) her whole boob.'
Mrs Willis claims she was not asked to cover up, but instead to stop feeding. She added: 'I asked her what she meant for me to stop doing and when she said 'that' I kept asking her 'can you tell me where I should feed my baby, she said 'you can't do that in here'.

'I asked this woman where I should feed my baby and her reply was "you need to go and do that in a public toilet," at no point did she mention the word discrete or covering up.'
She added: 'There were about 20 to 25 customers in there. I didn't hear anyone complain. I was wearing a proper breastfeeding bra, I was wearing a vest top and a jumper over the top.
'It wasn't as though I had a halter neck top on that just pulled off. I was being discrete.

'I certainly did not have my whole breast out, I have got small breasts, anybody would have to have been looking quite hard to see anything.'
The mother, who has volunteered for a breast feeding support group for five years, fled the coffee shop but claims Mrs Cox followed her to her car parked outside and threw a coke can and pieces of toast from the table into the footwell.

The cafe owner strongly denied calling her a 'disgusting woman' or following her out into the street claiming she returned to the kitchen instead.

The 2010 Equality Act states it is illegal to treat a woman differently because she is breast feeding and applies to anyone providing a service or premises for the public.

The act states providers must not discriminate, harass or victimise a woman because she is breast feeding. They cannot refused to provide a service or give sub-standard service.

Mrs Willis is taking legal advice in a bid to sue the owners of the cafe. She said: 'I feel absolutely traumatised and violated by how this person came up to me and spoke to me in such an abusive manner.

'If she had politely asked me to cover up or suggested I moved to another table that would have been fine but she didn't.

'Owners of public places need to be aware that there is a law that mothers can breast feed at public places, and that there is a way of talking to people about breast feeding, and maybe providing an area to breast feed comfortably.'



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388410/Lisa-Willis-claims-cafe-owner-branded-disgusting-breastfeeding-public.html#ixzz1Mje3EYVW