Widow sues cheesemaker for £200k after husband dies from infected Valentine’s gift
Painter Roger Parkes died days after eating a Baronet Reblochon bought as part of a Valentine’s gift box ordered by his wife
The widow of a West Sussex artist is suing for more than £200,000 after her husband died from a listeria infection linked to an artisan cheese she bought him for Valentine’s Day.
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Painter Roger Parkes, 69, became seriously ill and died in February 2023, days after eating a Baronet Reblochon bought as part of a Valentine’s gift box ordered by his wife, Carina Parkes, from Wiltshire cheesemaker The Old Cheese Room.
An inquest later found he died from multiple organ failure and meningitis.
Afterwards, The Old Cheese Room, run by master cheesemaker Julianna Sedli, recalled its Baronet Reblochon — a semi-soft cheese made from organic Jersey milk and marketed for its “buttery taste”.
While it has admitted that the ‘Baronet’ cheese Mr Parkes ate was infected with the potentially deadly bacteria, the cheese company continues to deny it was responsible for his death - drawing attention to the fact Mr Parkes was already struggling with serious health conditions.
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Court documents say Mrs Parkes ordered the cheese selection online through Rennet and Rind on 7 February 2023, and it was delivered to the couple’s home three days later.
Mr Parkes began eating the cheese on 17 February and “continued to pick at it” over the following days, the court heard.
An ambulance was called on 21 February after he became seriously unwell.
He was first taken to St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester before being transferred to the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton on 23 February, where he was diagnosed with listeria.
Despite treatment with antibiotics, his condition worsened and he died on 27 February 2023.
An inquest held in September 2024 concluded the cheese had been contaminated with listeria, was not fit for human consumption, and that this was likely due to the company’s manufacturing process.
The medical cause of death was recorded as multiorgan failure and listeria meningoencephalitis.
The Old Cheese Room, based at Neston Park, Home Farm, Corsham, is run by cheesemaker Julianna Sedli and her husband Karim Niazy.
The business is known for cheese made using milk from organic Jersey cows.
Its Baronet cheese is described online as having “a buttery taste and a washed rind”, with “a lovely pale-yellow core”.
The company withdrew a batch of Baronet from sale through a Food Standards Agency alert in March 2023, after Mr Parkes’ death and following reports of two other people becoming ill.
But while the company admits the cheese became contaminated, it is contesting whether that contamination caused Mr Parkes’ death.
In legal submissions, lawyers for The Old Cheese Room say no admissions are made about the “medical consequences” of the contamination, and argue Mr Parkes had already undergone major aortic surgery in the months before he died.
They say he had serious underlying health issues, including cardiovascular problems, renal failure, heart failure, DVT and hypertension, and deny he would otherwise have had a normal life expectancy.
Lawyers for Mrs Parkes argue that had the cheese not been contaminated, her husband would not have contracted listeria and died.
Mr Parkes described himself online as a “self-taught artist working to traditional guidelines but with an interest in both impressionism and semi-abstract work”.