A former model who claims she was forewarned of a devastating fire below her flat by a tarot reader is suing the restaurant where it started for £300,000.
Sally-Anne Jones says she suffered post-traumatic stress and was left with significant health problems as a result of the blaze on New Year’s Day in 2010. She says she only escaped with her life because she went to a tarot reading session a fortnight before where she picked the tower card, which foretells of danger and illustrates people jumping from a raging fire.
Now the socialite, who attended parties with Richard Branson, Katie Price and Hugh Hefner, is suing Fate Limited, owner of the Little Bay restaurant in York Road, Battersea, in the High Court for injury, loss and damage.
She said: “I was moving in circles with some big names and some quite important people before this happened.
“I don’t feel in any fit state to make decisions in my life. It’s not just the flashbacks and the fear, it is the devastation of the aftermath, not being able to work and sleep. Yes, I lost all my possessions, but I also lost my relationship, and my confidence. It feels as if I have had a personality transplant. Some part of me has gone.”
In legal papers submitted to the High Court, her solicitors claim she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and that an admission of liability has been made on the restaurant’s behalf by its insurers “subject to causation being proven”.
The former glamour model, 40, now an IT entrepreneur and consultant living in Chelsea, says she doesn’t know how long it will take to get back into work. She said: “People say to me, ‘but no one was killed and you didn’t die,’ but I was getting engaged and that was my world. A fire like that is about what is left behind, you have to rebuild your life. My friends try to make me go out, but I just want to lock myself away.”
Peter Ilic, who opened the restaurant in 2003, said: “The matter is being dealt with by Fate Ltd’s representatives who are in negotiations with Miss Jones’s solicitors in relation to her claim.”
