Okay, I understand that people may think I’m making this up, and unfortunately 24 years ago I wasn’t as smart to keep evidence like I had to with Pret.
But as Jill Dando’s murder is in the news again as it’s still unsolved, I want to share my experience I had with Barry George, wrongly convicted of her murder in 1999. He was first convicted of her murder, and then years later cleared of it.
My encounters with him was in the Tottenham Court Road branch of easyEverything in the spring of 2000. Ok, I do have some evidence which is an old payslip from that branch! (I will upload a scanned-in the JPG later).
I worked there for a few month when the Internet just started to boom and the easyGroup opened up Internet Cafe branches all over London. On a side note, I never understood with this group why they didn’t call it “easyInternet”. Never-mind.
The Tottenham Court Road branch was one of the biggest branches in London with a little over 500 PCs. It was open for 24 hours when I worked there and I chose the middle shift 1pm – 9pm. I remember having had the founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou standing behind me one day and the pound coin drawer kept overflowing. We had to cash out tills 2-3 times during the shift as the till drawers kept overflowing with pound coins.
I won a thing where they did a competition to sell £5 vouchers to customers getting £6 worth of Internet time. It was like the Pret subscription push. But I got about £500 reward for being the top seller in the whole company. Again, sorry have no evidence, but it’s the truth.
The worst thing that we had to deal with was customers tucked away in corners watching porn and we kicked them off their sessions via the front till computers pretending there’s a tech fault when they complained. We were not allowed to confront them, which now I would probably ask security or line manager, or if I was the manager on duty for them to leave!
But the most memorable experience was Barry George.
We staff knew his first name because he told us as we always chatted with him.
Barry George was a regular. He was quite unkempt, chubby, weird. But he seemed nice, nothing special. We staff chatted with him as he topped up his ticket with a pound worth of Internet time.
He seemed to be delusional and always came to the counter, which was a square space with counters on the front, side and back, to pickup and pay for print-outs. The prints were of HIMSELF posing as a singer which was weird to us staff, but hey, each to their own. His favourite position seemed to be bend down in a knee position with a microphone in his hand.
It was so weird because he looked like crap in the photos. There was no appeal whatsoever!
Only later when he got in the news we learnt that he was infatuated with Freddy Mercury. But at the time we just thought he’s in LaLa Land about his perception on himself. And that’s fine with me. Do your thing, no judgement.
But then came a day that had me a little nervous as he seemed extremely weird. Not what we usually encountered with him.
We had a new staff member fresh from Italy who served Barry. She was standing at the till right next to me and visibly struggled with Barry who complained about something. So, me stupid one made the mistake to get involved!
Because my new colleague struggled, I just took over and said something like “Hey Barry, everything ok, what happened?”
He then complained to me that his Internet time just stopped even though he (supposedly) has more time left on his ticket. Alright?
So I check his ticket number and saw very clearly when, where and how much he topped up and how much he used. And he used it all. I reminded him that if he doesn’t log out of the session that his time will just tick away and finish.
He kept moaning and then I did what we were instructed to do. I decided to give him a £1 time on the house. I told him that I’ll give him £1 as he was a regular customer and mistakes happen. No problem.
As I was about to top up a free £1 credit, he kept moaning and moaning, and then I stopped just before I pressed “enter” to finalise the credit and said to him something like, “Barry, I was just about to give you £1 for free and you keep complaining. I will now NOT give it to you …”
And then he revealed what shocked me at the time. He said in these words verbatim I will never forget: “I just want to let you know that I was recording this conversation”. He then kept following me around the square counter saying “This will have consequences for you” and he mentioned my name as we had name badges saying “my name” is ignoring me … this will have consequences …”
I worked in hospitality/retail all my life, but this was a one-off experience in customer service even to this day.
And only then did I see a small black audio recorder in his hand as he was leaning with his arm on the counter.
I immediately stepped backwards and called my assistant manager as I was scared and didn’t understand what was going on.
My AM came out and tried to investigate with Barry and me, when Barry held his recorder up. My AM then said to him that if he doesn’t stop recording, that this conversation is over. The AM later asked me to put into writing what exactly happened to send to head office or his manager to be ahead of any potential complaint (which never came from Barry). And this is why I now regret not having kept a copy!!!
Days later when Barry returned as usual, he came to my till to top up credit and was making a joke that he supposedly lost credit on his ticket just to wind me up. I then said to him jokingly, “Ah Berry, I know you!” Basically being funny/cheeky with him that I won’t get fooled. But his reply to me was with a very serious scary face saying, “You don’t know me!”
Alright.
I remember very well that I replied, “You’re right, I don’t know you.” And from then on I refused to serve him and turned to the other side of the counter every time he approached the tills as I really was confused and scared of this guy.
His behaviour had stalker qualities. And only now when I really look into this case, as I just scanned through years ago, do I learn that Barry was a stalker and sex offender. He certainly had bad vibes for sure, but now I think would he had followed me or my colleagues after work? Good thing I moved to the States a few weeks after these encounters with him. I also remember being scared that the police would find my voice on his recordings and god knows what would be thinking. I was completely taken off-guard and also still kept thinking I’d get in trouble with head office, which was completely unreasonable to fear. I hadn’t done anything wrong and my line manager just wanted to cover me and the team by me writing down what happened as a pro-ative measure. Shame I didn’t keep a copy!!!
A few weeks later, I come to my middle shift and a colleague immediately approaches me as I just walk into the shop saying that Barry has been arrested for the murder of Jill Dando.
‘Xcuse me?
I felt immediately that I lost all the blood from my head and froze because of the previous weird incidents just two weeks prior. At the time the press wasn’t allowed to reveal his photo and only a black-and-white phantom drawing was published in the press. But it didn’t look like him, so I remained confused.
But soon after I moved to Florida and kept following the story as best as possible, still in “awe” how the fnck I could have had encounters with this guy.
But later of course, for some reason he was just “picked” as a suspect BECAUSE he was weird! And he really was weird! So weird, I got scared. He was scary! I was scared of him after the recording incident and beyond.
And sometimes I fear for my own life, because I am weird with all the traumas I went through! But I don’t give a sh!t.
Barry was weird alright, and whatever mental health problems he had or has, he does not fit the description of the suspected killer who was in a suit that terrible morning in Fulham. Barry never wore a suit or looked in any way smart. He wore a jogging suit, very unattractive, unkempt, but most importantly innocent!
I feel sorry for him and hope he does get compensation which they still deny him.
expret.org, ex-easyEverything.
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I worked at Pret A Manger and survived systemic workplace bullying during bereavement that involved HR, the top leadership, HQ and even the now “retired” former CEO Clive Schlee. Schlee has been appointed CEO of itsu in 2024 by Julian Metcalfe who gave him the CEO spot at Pret many years ago.
I declined 4 settlement offers if I am silent about my ordeal. But I rather speak out to help others. For an overview of important blog entries of my experience with Pret, please visit “My Ordeal with Pret A Manger”. The little arrow to the right next to each heading will lead directly to the post.
An incomplete list on what other Pret staff say about Pret’s bullying environment: Caught in the Act Bullying at Pret and What shop MANAGERS & HQ staff say about Pret incl. CEO Pano Christou.
I tell my story for the first time verbally in below audio player interview on a podcast by The Adam Paradox, and wrote two articles in the Scottish Left Review as well as mentioned by the BBC.
Please also see the MEDIA page for more on my work with the press.
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Interview:
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Bullied during bereavement in Pret A Manger 