Pub sex: Small town doesn’t want a bar of it
Manager denies all knowledge despite website link to saucy site. Kim Nutbrown reports.
Residents of a small North Canterbury town are protesting against an alleged sex business being run out of the local pub.
Erica Willoughby and five others paraded signs in a silent protest outside The Rustic Country, saying ‘‘disgusting’’, ‘‘not welcome’’, and ‘‘not in Oxford’’.
‘‘On a Saturday night the hotel is often closed for these functions. Even on a Monday afternoon there are so many cars parked outside the Rustic Country, the blinds are all pulled and the doors are locked,’’ Willoughby said.
Willoughby believed website Rendezvous NZ, was linked to the alleged sex business at the hotel and pub, The Rustic Country. The hotel was jointly owned by Ross Whiteside and Yvette Feary.
Whiteside, who manages the hotel, denied any knowledge of a business operation related to sexual activities.
‘‘I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. I run a completely normal hotel and I’ve never heard anything about this before now,’’ Whiteside said.
He had never heard of Rendezvous NZ, despite a website domain search showing it was registered in his name.
The website, which has been shut down since Stuff started making inquiries, encouraged patrons to ‘‘wear as little as possible’’ while they ‘‘watch movies’’ and a ‘‘live show’’, and that there were a wide range of sexual activities ‘‘for discerning adults’’.
It encouraged guests to ‘‘dress in sexy attire, low cut, see through, short and revealing as you desire’’, and said ‘‘a dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to take it off you’’.
It stated the business hired a well-equipped country lodge located 40 minutes northwest of Christchurch.
‘‘We offer and expect respect and discretion,’’ it read.
‘‘Any approach to these premises outside of these parties is not appropriate and will result in your attendance being denied and approaches blocked.’’
Anyone interested could text a number to inquire about upcoming parties. They would then receive instructions and directions to the venue once they were ‘‘confirmed as genuine’’.
His former partner and shareholder, Feary, said she was made aware of the hotel’s ‘‘side business’’.
She felt ‘‘extremely disappointed’’ at the way the business had been run over the past three years since her relationship with Whiteside ended. She had resigned as a director, but remained a 50 per cent shareholder.
‘‘I don’t condone it, this was not happening when I lived at the hotel,’’ Feary said.
‘‘It was always my dream to have a family-focused bar and restaurant that would be an asset to Oxford, nothing like what is being run now.’’
Feary said the Rustic Country had been listed for sale for the past three years.
Protester Willoughby acknowledged it was a polarising issue, but she would continue to stand up for what she felt was right.
‘‘We had so many cars stop on the day, the majority of them men telling us what a good job we were doing and telling us they fully support us.
‘‘There are a lot of people who don’t want a business like this operating in our town.’’