WOMEN who alleged a hotel gave them food poisoning during a 40th birthday celebration took part in a booze-fuelled party with sex toys and candle sticks, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Brockley Hall Hotel in Saltburn, has been under investigation after a number of guests fell ill at an event earlier this summer.

Public Health England (PHE) was called to investigate whether chicken liver parfait eaten by the guests had caused the sickness, but the final report published earlier this week cleared the hotel of any wrong-doing.

But the Echo can now reveal that graphic CCTV footage shows that women attending the birthday event were involved in lewd behaviour, including passing around sex toys and taking part in acts of a sexual nature with hotel candlesticks, while climbing on restaurant tables and chairs.

Bosses said the hotel has lost thousands of pounds in cancelled bookings, and are desperate to repair its damaged reputation, after receiving a number of negative Facebook and TripAdvisor posts about the incident.

While only some of the 17 women at the party took part, others appeared to capture the footage on mobile phones and hotel staff continued to provide the group with more drinks.

The activity took place in a public area of the hotel between 7.30pm and 8.30pm, with only a large see-through glass door cutting the room off from other guests enjoying their evening meals.

At one point, a child was seen walking past the glass door while the women were in the room.

The group had already been persuaded to move into the room, after hotel staff became concerned that their behaviour earlier in the evening had become disruptive.

The women are understood to have left the hotel around 8.30pm.

The CCTV footage was shown to the Environment Agency, but it was not passed on to Public Health England – and therefore did not form part of their final report.

PHE praised Brockley Hall’s handling of the incident in its report for “investigating as early as possible”, and it was confirmed that the hotel had been the first to raise concerns with the Environment Agency about the alleged food poisoning.

The final report by PHE into the cause of the illness said: “There was no evidence to suggest that the chicken liver parfait was prepared, stored or served differently on the Saturday evening, nor for the party.

“The party ate their food in the same dining room as other diners – if high level of the contamination was present then illness would be more likely to be distributed more equally amongst the diners.

“No obvious defect was noted in the production of this food item and therefore cannot be concluded with certainty why this caused illness, nor why illness was seen only in the one large party.

"More than 30 guests staying at the hotel ate the chicken liver parfait on the night, but only five became ill – all of whom attended the birthday party."

A chef at the hotel, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “It has not been nice for anyone – we have spent a long time building up our reputation.

“Since opening in May last year, we have designed our own kitchen and we have worked hard and supported each other throughout.

“The biggest shock for me was the personal comments online - but I have been supported by everyone here.”

Speaking about the parfait, he said: “We have served thousands since we opened – it is a really popular starter, but we have had to take it off the menu after what happened."

The hotel confirmed it was continuing its investigation into the events of the evening on July 1.

A spokesperson for Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council said: “Public Health England has completed its report and sent it to the council, which will assist in our investigation which is currently ongoing.”