THE wife of a firearms officer who was victimised by some colleagues at Cleveland Police because he was Asian said today that taking the force to a tribunal had "taken its toll".

Kim Saddique, wife of Nadeem Saddique, whose complaints of racial discrimination and victimisation by colleagues at the force were yesterday (WED) upheld by an employment tribunal, thanked the colleagues and friends who had supported her husband.

The former VIP protection officer - who had guarded the Royal family and Tony Blair - claimed some colleagues tried to force him out of the firearms unit at Cleveland Police. He was the only Asian officer in the unit. The tribunal found that the majority of his claims were "well founded".

Mrs Saddique said today (Thurs, Nov 26): "A special thank you to all his colleagues, especially those who courageously stood up and gave evidence on his behalf.

"It was never his intention to go to a tribunal, however, after having experienced difficulties for over ten years and having exhausted all internal avenues, including two chief constables...and middle management, all of whom failed to resolve the situation.

"It has been a long and difficult process which has saddened us both and taken its toll."

The tribunal found that there had been 19 instances of victimisation by individuals and 11 of discrimination against PC Saddique, 44, from Stockton, Teesside, who joined the force in 1991.

He claimed he had had to suffer "bullying, racism and a hostile working environment", and that supervisors or colleagues did not deal with claims an armed officer said he was going to "drive to the local mosque and shoot Paki kids".

PC Saddique also claimed that the case of a firearms colleague displaying a racist EDL sticker on his loaded gun holster, while in an armed response vehicle, was "disgracefully covered up".

He said that there was a culture of "senior officers turning a blind eye or deaf ear to racist comments and actions by a few".

Judge Tudor Garnon wrote: "At various points in evidence we detected some officers resent any colleague giving information against other officers. We also detected a view by some senior officers that raising race discrimination unnecessarily distracted the force from its daily work and those who did so were troublemakers."

Chief Constable Jacqui Cheer herself told the tribunal that when she joined the force there was a "never admit and never apologise" attitude among "old school" officers.

While Mrs Cheer, and deputy Iain Spittal were not found to have acted in a racist way themselves, the judge said they were guilty of trusting those they had asked to investigate, without checking that the investigations had been carried out.

A later hearing will decide what compensation will be awarded.