PORTLAND (AP) — Three women who once worked at a Maine scented candle manufacturer say in federal lawsuits that the company’s founder and president subjected them to “relentless sexual harassment.”

The lawsuits were filed last week in U.S. District Court in Portland by the former vice president of sales, former retail sales manager, and former debt collector at Wells-based Village Candle.

The suits allege that Village Candle President Paul Aldrich asked the women sexually inappropriate questions and subjected them to unwanted touching and sexual advances. All three suits said Aldrich had a “well-established, pervasive pattern of grossly inappropriate sexual harassment of female employees.”

Aldrich’s attorney, Stephen Langsdorf, told the Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/1s2hSLf ) that his client “absolutely denies that there was any sexual harassment involving any of the claimants in this case.”