Storm over teacups!
Cafe owner in sex toy protest outside her rivals’ tearoom
A BITTER feud between a coffee shop owner and her local rivals boiled over when a purple sex toy was left on display outside their tearoom.
Kerry Radley, 46, parked outside the Prima Rosa cafe run by Martin Nudd and wife Judith – with the offending item on the back seat.
The tableau was completed with a picture of a topless woman and a card riddled with swear words. A court heard the scene reduced Mrs Nudd, 49, to tears.
Her customers were also left shocked, with one woman’s children peering inside the car and asking: ‘What is that purple cucumber?’
Trouble began brewing between yoga teacher Radley and the Nudds in May 2015 when the couple set up their tearoom in the Norfolk Broads village of Salhouse. It was just 20 yards from Radley’s, an artisan coffee shop that had opened nine months earlier. With a local population of just 1,500, competition was fierce.
Soon afterwards, both sides accused each other of intimidation and abusive behaviour.
Parish councillor Mr Nudd, 58, and his wife claimed that Radley – who ploughed £75,000 in her business – had harassed them by taking photographs of their tearoom and staring through the window. Radley alleged a sign had been vandalised and fake negative reviews of her cafe were posted online.
Radley’s closed in September 2017. Its owner was later issued with a council order banning her from staring into her rivals’ cafe, entering or taking photos of it.
Radley successfully appealed, and the council paid her costs of £1,200. Norwich Magistrates Court heard that Radley, a mother of three, Prima Rosa parked in her May Honda last year. outside
Giving evidence via videolink, Mrs Nudd said seeing the sex toy had made her feel ‘awful’. She told magistrates: ‘This has been going on for so long now – it is total harassment. All I have ever wanted is to be left alone.’
Customer Josephine Allen said: ‘The car was about 2ft or 3ft away from the shop window. I noticed ... a purple sex toy on the back seat. There was also a card with swear words opened showed ‘utterly She recalled on a distraught’, copy ‘topless it.’ She that of woman’. added Mrs a adding: newspaper Nudd that ‘She was an was Another sobbing customer, and shaking.’ Amanda Geary, said her children asked ‘What is that purple cucumber?’ Radley told the court she parked outside the tearoom after receiving threatening phone calls. She claimed it was meant to be a ‘protest’ and had left notes on the dashboard top) move friends’ insisted and her – one stopped the another car reading sex when toy harassing saying the ‘OTT’ and Nudds card she (over her. would must ‘and She the have and slipped claimed out of they a bag were by ‘a accident joke present for a friend’. Radley was fined £180 and ordered to pay £250 costs after being found guilty of causing harassment and distress. She did not respond to a request to comment yesterday. Mrs Nudd said: ‘I am glad it is all over.’