Library ban for 'overpowering body odour' man

A man has been banned from a library for six months after complaints about his "overpowering" body odour. Stuart Penman was told on Wednesday that he was no longer welcome at Wigston library, in Bull Head Street, because of concerns about his personal hygiene.

Library staff said the 27-year-old, of Davenport Road, Wigston, had been advised about his smell on a number of occasions over the past 12 months but had done nothing about it. They said they were forced to act after more and more people began leaving the building on his arrival.

Mr Penman said: "I have a bath every day but I realise my feet do smell. I live with my mum, who smokes, so I smell like cigarettes. But I feel I'm being picked on because they don't like me. I went in on Wednesday morning to use the computers and nobody said anything to me and when I went back later that evening I was told I'd been barred. One of the men who works there took me to one side a few times to speak about it and I appreciated that and would leave and have a wash.But some of the women that work there just tell me to get out because I smell, in front of everyone. It's very embarrassing when they do that."



Margaret Bellamy, head of library services for the council, said she felt the situation was very embarrassing but the decision had to be made. She said: "He has been using the library for a while and we've been getting complaints about his personal hygiene for about a year. It's not the cigarette smell, it is his body odour.

"We've sat down with him to see what can be done and even asked him if he's been washing, using deodorant and regularly changing his clothes. We asked him if he minded leaving if people complained about his smell, but recently it's got worse and we've been getting complaints. We've had people leaving and saying it's because of the smell. I feel very sorry about the whole situation and it's not a decision we took lightly but we've done all we can to help and it's still not getting any better. When people were refusing to come into the library we felt we had no other option."

Stuart's partner Laila Spencer, 23, who lives with him and his mum in Little Hill estate, said: "We use the library every day to go on the internet. It's very unfair to ban Stuart. He does wash every day and they never warned us about it. He tries his best to keep clean but he does have a bit of a problem sometimes."