'Female Basil Fawlty': Drunk boss in court for attacking staff

A hotel owner, dubbed ‘the female Basil Fawlty’ is in court for allegedly attacking her staff – Daily Mail reports.

Shirley Bothroyd, a retired Human Rights Lawyer, is on trial for supposedly fighting with her employees at the Bay Hotel in Teignmouth – ironically located down the road from where comedy classic Fawlty Towers was filmed. Bothroyd is accused of slapping and pulling the hair out of one of her chefs, throwing a plant pot at one of her barmen, calling a receptionist ‘thick’ and throwing a Guinness-based concoction at a Police Officer.

Chef Pauline Cave explained that Bothroyd attacked her because she wanted the key to the kitchen. She said: “I said she could not have the key. I turned to walk away and the next thing I knew Shirley had grabbed my hair from behind and pulled me down to the floor by my hair and repeatedly slapping my right cheek.”

Furthermore, the court heard that Bothroyd had told Police Officers that she was ‘cleverer than God’. There were further accounts of violence with friends and partners.