Harvester apologises after asking disabled teenage girl to leave restaurant 'for making too much noise'

A manager asked Megan Brennan, 19, and her family to leave the Harvester

A restaurant chain has apologised to a family after a teenager with severe learning difficulties was asked to leave by the manager as they believed she was making too much noise.

Megan Brennan, 19, was out for a meal in Harvester with her close relatives to mark moving from home into full-time care when staff told her mother Helen that she was disrupting other diners.

Although the company said it had got an "extremely sensitive situation" wrong, Mrs Brennan said she was "devastated and upset" by the way the family were treated at the Ham Farm Harvester in Eastleigh, Hampshire.

She told the BBC: "[Megan] was very excited and she was babbling quite a bit and when we were asked to leave by the manager, I was just devastated."

Miss Brennan, from Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, has the genetic disorder Angelman syndrome which causes seizures and difficulty with speech and has to raise her voice or make noises to communicate.

Mrs Brennan, who has three children, said the family refused to leave and apologised to the other diners after the manager refused to admit any wrongdoing.

The company said it had since discussed the incident with staff and has given the family a £100 gift voucher, however Mrs Brennan said she would never return.

Harvester said in a statement: "Going forward we are highlighting this poor experience to our teams across the country to ensure no other guests are put in this situation again.

"We spoke with the Brennan family, apologised to them directly and, we understand, resolved their complaint."

Harvester's parent company Mitchells & Butlers have yet to comment further after being contacted by The Independent.