India joins in the global support

by Christina England
July 6, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1578/india-joins-in-the-global-support

This is the story of one man's fight to be reunited with the son that he claims was stolen from him by the microbiology giants BioMerieux. His story includes double dealing, blackmail, threats of violence, actual violence, abuse of power and sexual harassment. It has been backed up with numerous pieces of documented evidence.

BioMerieux tore this man's whole family apart, whilst demonstrating little regard for human suffering. To date, they have not even had the decency to acknowledge the pain that they have caused. Through the actions of this company, an ex contractor Mark Heslehurst lost the son he loves and his marriage has been destroyed. On top of this he has been physically assaulted, sexually harassed and blackmailed. Despite the intense pain that this has caused, Heslehurst does not wish to achieve revenge. He simply wants bioMeriuex to help reunite him with his family. This is such a simple wish considering the pain and suffering that this man has had to endure.

BioMerieux is one of the largest companies in the world working in microbiology and vitro diagnostics. This French owned company has laboratories worldwide, including America, China, and Japan and have recently included India in their catalogue of worldwide enterprises. They now have offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Cochin and Bangalore.

This impressive company provides diagnostic solutions for disease and contamination and are seen to be connected with some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the business, having links with GlaxoSmithKline, and Merck and also work closely with the NHS in the UK.

BioMerieux boast that they take pride in always putting the customers first by giving them customer satisfaction at all times. To enable them to put their customers first, they recognise that every member of staff is an asset and without their highly valued employees their organisation would fail to deliver to their customer. In fact bioMerieux say as much on their website. They state very clearly;

"Employees are our Greatest Asset:

We must respect and recognize the work and the ideas of all employees, no matter what their job.

We work together towards a common goal: satisfy our customers."

Biomerieux

Reading through their website, one would expect to find true professionalism and high standards, however, Heselhurst paints a very different picture. In 1994 Mark Heslehurst originally from Teeside, England, decided to have a change of career and travelled to France to teach English to French Businessmen. In 2000 after years of hard work and dedication he was able to set up his own language school. His business was doing exceptionally well, with the main bulk of the workload coming from bioMerieux.

Seeing how professional and capable Heslehurst was bioMerieux offered Mr Heslehurst a deal. BioMerieux asked him if he was willing to work at half the market price for a year, promising that if the quality of the work he delivered was good, then the second year they would then offer him the market price. This promise although confirmed in writing by participants at the original meeting and subsequently confirmed by bioMérieux, was never honoured.

According to Heslehurst relationships with bioMerieux soon began to deteriorate and during his first year, the manager of training, Florence Girard, became 'flirtatious', making him feel distinctively uncomfortable in her presence. When Heslehurst began to refuse her advances she and another manager Marc Barral began making comments about two members of his team which Heslehurst felt were both racial and homophobic. He became angry because the comments were being made about not only his close friends but two exceptional teachers. He said:

"This homophobic and racist attitude persisted and I was later informed not to let Sarah work with the manager Christophe Coppens because "he (Mr Coppens) did not wish to work with an African, he wanted to learn real English".

Heslehurst continued by adding:

"These meetings took place inside bioMerieux and in official meetings."

At the end of the first year events took a very serious twist. Heselhurst says;

"At the end of the first year, the quality of training was excellent (official response). However, despite this Florence Girard who was responsible for training at bioMerieux informed me that if I wanted the promised increase I had to have a sexual relationship with her. I refused. The two following years followed the same pattern, no increase unless I did 'it'.

I could not walk away. The contract was so big I was totally dependent; all my teachers had come from England to live and work in France they had given up their homes and jobs for their dream of working in France. I had taken several bank loans."

Desperate, Heslehurst turned to Christian Noizet, biomérieux's Director of Human Resources for help and advice. Unfortunately instead of the help and support that Heslehurst needed, Noizet simply turned his back. According to Heslehurst, it later materialized that the reason for Noizet's strange behaviour was that he was having an affair with Girad himself, along with a string of other male employee's.

Heslehurst said that the flirting soon became an outright obsession and that Girard began to use different tactics to get him to sleep with her. He says that she became so desperate in fact that she resorted to blackmail, offering him very large contracts worth millions of pounds, if, he agreed to have sex with her at a named hotel.

The situation began to escalate and her advances became increasingly intimate and very public. After years of what can only be described as continual sexual harassment, moral threats, humiliation and blackmail, Heslehurst was approached by a senior director of biomérieux, Jean Claude Rivard, another Director of Human Resources, who had been informed internally by Ms Paula Steck Costaglio (Assistant biomérieux human resources) of the situation.

Giard was fired almost immediately for sexual harassment, after what Heslehurst describes as a very short and hasty investigation. The Letter of dismissal was very blunt and to the point and it stated in a translated version that:

"You have applied serious pressure to our principal supplier who is in charge of our English Language training. To try to obtain a sexual relationship with him and for your part you would look at revising prices paid to him and his company. Following his refusal you have tried to break the contract with his company, saying the quality of his service was bad, without informing your hierarchy.

Because of the seriousness of these allegations, we verified intensely, the facts which were reported.

Unfortunately, the facts we have were confirmed as reality."

Despite Ms Girard being sacked, the stress of the situation had become so intense that Heslehurst's marriage began to suffer. On top of this Heslehurst was asked to stop working for the company and when he consulted a solicitor for advice he began to lose what was left of his work, as contract after contract was cancelled.

Soon Heslehurst and his wife were receiving abusive and threatening phone calls. Heslehurst said:

"At this time, I was informed by Jean Claude Rivard, Director of Human Resources with the green light he informed me, from Alain Merieux, head of bioMérieux and Dr. Benoit Adelus, Vice President of bioMérieux that they had concrete evidence that criminals working for Christian Noizet, Director of Human Resources, bioMérieux could come into my offices or my house to look for papers to help his lover Florence Girard. My wife and I were told this face to face. She was 7 months pregnant at the time and terrified. We were also informed again by Jean Claude Rivard that it was possible I could be physically attacked and that experts inside biomérieux were entering our personal computers to find information they could use against us.

Dr. Benoit Adelus, Senior Vice President of bioMérieux, gave green-light for threats against my family and blackmail. Now president of Sebia, a US company, he confirmed all sexual relationships of Mrs Girard.

Dominique, my wife, was seven months pregnant with Edward at this time and she was very nervous with all these threats, especially since we had tried for several years to have a family."

Suddenly out of the blue Heslehurst was physically attacked and ended up in hospital. The Hospital report said that he had suffered from head injuries to both the front and top of his head and other injuries. At this point the police became involved, however bioMerieux refused to co-operate with them. The police warned Heslehurst that further attacks could follow. Police report. The abuse continued to drive a wedge in their in their already fragile marriage and Dominique who by this time was close to a mental breakdown became so afraid for her life and that of her sons that she fled to Cambodia taking young Edward with her.

Dominique chose Cambodia as her refuge because she was half French and half Cambodian and this was the only place left that she felt safe after the terrible threats that she had endured from bioMerieux. Mark Heslehurst says that he remembers the day well as it will be etched on his heart forever. He says that his young son Edward clung to him pleading him to let him stay.

Dominique says:

"The last straw after years of stress was when the vice president BioMerieux North Carolina, confirmed threats previously made by his company to myself and family. He thought it was all acceptable; it pushed me over the edge. This one call sent me and my son to the other side of the world. I am there today...."

Since arriving in Cambodia, Heslehurst says that Edward has deteriorated. His school reports say that he has become introverted and have recommended that he may need a psychiatrist to help with his problems. Edward says that he wishes to return to England to be with his father and grandparents but Dominique has good work in Cambodia and is fearful of coming to England and having no work.

Helslehurst feels that bioMerieux should at least help reunite him with his family after all the pain that they have caused. Not too much to ask under the circumstances. He says he has forgiven them for what they have done but wants them to help him. In fact he feels so strongly that he has taken his campaign to bring his son home to the UK government. Prime Minister David Cameron has refused to intervene, despite the fact that he has been written to by Heslehurst's own Member of Parliament Tom Blenkinsop. Heslehurst says that Blenkinsop has written officially to David Cameron and Ed miliband and has had three private meetings with Ed Miliband and his team to intervene and help this family and reunite Mark and his son. Over 40,000 emails have now been sent to the British Parliament by supporters. See Letters from MP Tom Blenkinsop to Prime Minister David Cameron and Labour leader Ed Milliband Letters

Huslehurst says that as soon as Tom Bleninsop heard his story he immediately wrote to the British Consul in Atlanta USA to give him assistance while he was protesting in America outside BioMerieux North American HQ In North Carolina. Huslehurst feels that the Middlesborough MP has acted quickly, professionally and with humanity at all times and he thanks him from the bottom of his heart. Sadly the USA Consul is unable to help but Blenkinsop has not been put off and continues in the fight to have Edward reunited with his father.

Heslehurst has gained worldwide interest and says that he now has support from the UK, USA and India, including tremendous support from the Indian community, living in the UK. Many of his supporters have brought members to join his facebook group who live in India. Several members of this powerful group, so he tells me, are government officials now fighting with him to get his son back.

One of the leading supporters in the cause is Dr Pardeep Kumar who resides in the UK working for the NHS (National Health Service). According to Heslehurst he has personally brought hundreds of NHS employees to help the cause. Mr Heslehurst has told me that he is the founder of the group 'Save the NHS'. Kumar has told Heslehurst that he will post his story onto the union notice board. This he hopes will gain support from the temples, mosques and churches. Heslehurst says that he has since added many Indian government officials to his facebook group. This is wonderful support from the Indian community which according to Heslehurst is growing daily.

Heslehurst plans to return to UK in the next few weeks to protest in front of the bioMerieux headquarters in Hampshire. He is asking for people to support by joining him to help him in his quest to be reunited with the son he so desperately loves.

I asked biomerieux to put forward their side of the story. A Koren Wolman-Tardy wrote to me confirming that Mr Heslehurst's company 'English Consultants' was hired by them to teach languages to their employees between the years 2000 to 2003 saying that the arrangement was under an annually renewable contract. Wolman-Tardy continued that because bioMérieux's needs changed, it was decided not to renew the contract and that this was in accordance with the contractual obligations of both parties.

From the information and documents that I have in my possession their side of things once again appears to be very different from the facts of this case.

I have a letter which I am told was presented in court written by David Homes the Director of 'English Consultants' the company that Heslehurst owned. Mr Holmes paints a very different picture. This letter was written after Mr Holmes had attended an unplanned meeting. Although Mr Heslehurst's company no longer worked for bioMerieux Mr Holmes was tying up loose ends and finishing the contract. He specifies very clearly that Madame Miny Arduin had indicated that the company was still willing to work with English Consultants if Mr Heslehurst was willing to 'make concessions'. Holmes wrote:

"It is in my opinion that this most unprofessional tactic was to try to put pressure on me, and indirectly Mr Heslehurst, to stop legal action by offering me as Director General of English Consultants the opportunity to work with bioMerieux in 2004."

In other words, 'if you stop legal action now we will reward you with more work'. This is the same company that terminated the contract in the first place. Obviously they felt uncomfortable with the legal action and were prepared to blackmail Mr Holmes into agreeing to stop the procedure by getting Mr Heslehurst to agree to compromise.

BioMerieux finished their email to me saying that they wished to make no further comment. This prevented me from asking them about the meeting and why they offered more work on a contract that they had ended because 'their needs had changed'. If their needs had changed and this was agreed to by both companies then why was more work offered in the way of a nice fat juicy carrot?

This whole story leaves a lot of questions unanswered and a family split up with a distressed child in the middle who is missing his father. BioMerieux needs to put this whole thing right and help this family to be reunited.

Since Edward was taken to Cambodia, Heslehurst has worked tirelessly for three years to build the support necessary to bring this story to the world in an attempt to be reunited with his son. Mr Heslehurst has two groups on facebook one which consists of almost 13 000 people from around the world, which is growing daily. Many of the group work in the medical sector. Heslehurst has two internet sites 10 which have enormous traffic from around the world which outline this story in greater details.

In December 2010 Heslehurst flew from his home in Middlesbrough England to America where he has been ever since. His story has gained support worldwide, with thousands of Americans participating. He currently resides in America because the phone call which sent his wife fleeing to Cambodia taking his little boy with her came from bioMerieux's HQ in North Carolina North American. According to Heslehurst during this telephone conversation, the Vice President of BioMerieux, Thierry Bernard confirmed the threats previously made by his company to both him and his wife.

In America, Heslehurst has stood outside Biomerieux US HQ for 14 weeks in the coldest weather on record. He has handed out over 20,000 flyers just yards from BioMerieux American HQ. He says that he has been threatened 5 times and had his life threatened three times.

He has also been threatened with arrest on several occasions and illegally stopped from having friends protest with him. He has slept out in tents going on hunger strike for 40 days, only stopping when informed no one would know. All this he has done for the love of his son Edward.

Heslehurst has asked only for help to be reunited with his son. BioMerieux have refused this simple request. This has angered his supporters and they are now pushing for a boycott of the company BioMerieux around the world.

(I have written this article from the letters and documents provided by Mr Heslehurst and conversations that I have had with him.)

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