B&B owner loses gay discrimination case

A B & B owner has lost her appeal against a ruling she unlawfully discriminated against a gay couple when she refused to let them stay in a double room.

Christian Susanne Wilkinson declined to let Michael Black, 64, and John Morgan, 59, have the room at the Swiss Bed and Breakfast in Cookham, Berkshire, in March 2010.

A judge at Reading County Court heard that the pair, from Brampton, near Huntingdon, in Cambridgeshire, who had made a reservation and paid a deposit, protested at their treatment but Mrs Wilkinson made it clear that it was against her religious convictions to allow two men to share a bed.

Today, Master of the Rolls Lord Dyson, Lady Justice Arden and Lord Justice McCombe, in the Court of Appeal in London, dismissed Mrs Wilkinson's challenge, but gave her permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The appeal, on October 9, will be heard at the same time as that of Peter and Hazelmary Bull, who refused to let Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy share a bedroom at their seaside guesthouse in Cornwall.