By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-15 14:21:28 | Updated at 2025-01-15 17:11:34
2 hours ago
A wealthy older boss who lavished his 'lady of leisure' PA with gifts in the hope of romance before she turned up at a works do with a strongman bodybuilder in tow told of his relief after she lost a legal action against him.
Peter Metcalfe, 54-year-old owner of a nationwide haulage firm based in North Yorkshire market town Hawes, had taken on Emma Hennell-Whittington as a personal assistant in August 2021.
She later tried to sue him for sexual harassment after allowing him to believe she was interested in pursuing a romantic relationship while receiving expensive presents - but her industrial tribunal claim was rejected.
Ms Hennell-Whittington, who was in her late 30s and engaged, had been receiving an annual salary of £30,000, for which she worked just ten hours a week.
And Mr Metcalfe also gave her gifts worth tens of thousands of pounds including Botox treatment, handbags, a Volkswagen Tiguan car and a Honda Civic.
While she pursued a leisurely lifestyle, swimming and shopping during office hours, Mr Metcalfe further offered to cover the £45,000 cost of buying out her fiance's share of a house where she lived with her teenage daughter from another relationship.
A legal judgment published following a Newcastle employment tribunal noted that Ms Hennell-Whittington 'did not, at any stage until the breakdown of the employment relationship, inform him she was not interested romantically'.
Mr Metcalfe, who had repeatedly declared his love for Ms Hennell-Whittington, today told MailOnline of his relief now she has been told to hand over to his firm £15,000 in legal costs - though was unsure whether she would actually pay up.
Peter Metcalfe, left, is seen with Emma Hennell-Whittington, who has been ordered to pay £15,000 in costs after an unsuccessful attempt to sue her former boss for sexual harassment
Ms Hennell-Whittington was sacked after bringing Ultimate Strongman competitor Alan Grieves, with whom she started a relationship while engaged to another man, to a work event
Speaking today from his office in Hawes, he said: 'I just want to draw a line under the whole sordid affair.
'I'm happy with the result - as happy as I can be. I just want to draw a line under it now - end of.'
A relaxed Mr Metcalfe, who was sharing the office with two female employees who were busily tapping away at computer keyboards, answered, 'Who knows?' when asked whether he expected to receive the £15,000 now owed him.
He added: 'The written reasons why she lost are all in the ruling, and that's that.'
Mr Metcalfe and Ms Hennell-Whittington had first met when he dealt with the Stockton fertiliser firm for which she worked in early 2021.
The tribunal was told they exchanged flirtatious banter and she suggested he employ her as his PA, while he replied he could see her as a 'lady of leisure'.
The hearing was told how 'the penny finally began to drop' for Mr Metcalfe, that Ms Hennell-Whittington was not interested in him romantically, when she attended a July 2022 charity ball at his haulage firm with Alan Grieves.
She was said to have started a relationship with Mr Grieves, an Ultimate Strongman competitor, two months earlier while 'still in a relationship with her fiance'.
She had told Mr Metcalfe she was about to leave her estranged former partner, but new love Mr Grieves, a construction boss, had gone unmentioned.
Mr Metcalfe terminated her employment five days later, the tribunal was told.
Her subsequent claims of sex discrimination and harassment related to sex were dismissed, and she has now been ordered to pay Mr Metcalfe's haulage firm £15,000 in legal costs.
An employment judge, who described Ms Hennell-Whittington as 'an articulate and intelligent individual' but an 'unreliable historian', said she knew the case would 'embarrass' her former employer.
Kirti Jeram said: 'By insisting on proceeding to a final hearing, [she] effectively compelled [Mr Metcalfe] to be subjected to public scrutiny about matters that she knew, or at least ought reasonably to have known, were likely to be difficult and embarrassing for him.'
The judge ruled Ms Hennell-Whittington had 'encouraged' Mr Metcalfe's affection as part of a 'transactional' relationship that afforded her a lifestyle she 'could not reasonably expect' in any other job.
'[Mr Metcalfe] described her as the 'best thing in the world I've ever met' and he was regularly and explicitly expressing his love for her,' the judgment said.
'[She] did not reciprocate those words; she did not ask him to stop, either. [She] did, however, inform [him] of her desires and financial needs.
'[He] believed that they were developing their relationship, platonic as it was now, in secret, with a possibility of exploring an open and romantic relationship in the not so distant future.
'[She] knew that those were [his] beliefs and hopes and she took no steps to scotch them.'
Mr Metcalfe had made plain his desire to forge a relationship with Ms Hennell-Whittington, whom he first met when dealing with the Stockton fertiliser firm she worked for in early 2021, from the outset, said Judge Jeram.
'Before the employment relationship commenced, there was nothing at all to prevent [her] from simply informing [him] that his affection for her was misplaced and unwanted,' she said.
'We reject [her] case that [his] affections for her grew in a vacuum, without any reciprocation, encouragement or input from her.
'We characterise her conduct towards [him] as being transactional in nature.'
Making the costs order following the latest hearing, the judge said Ms Hennell-Whittington had been warned her case was likely to fail.
