A COUNCIL accused of destroying a promising teacher’s career racked up £155,000 in interest charges through its failure to pay a compensation award, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Durham County Council, which has now paid more than £1.5m to Karen Hall as result of a series of employment tribunal rulings, was charged interest at a rate of eight per cent after failing to pay promptly a £1.37m award from 2013.

Ex-teacher ‘like a shell’ after nightmare ordeal

Remarkably, the lengthy legal saga involving Mrs Hall, a former teacher at West Cornforth Primary School, may not have ended yet with the local authority still subject to a claim that she was unfairly dismissed from her job in August 2009 and subject to further victimisation.

In October, County Councillor Ossie Johnson, the council’s cabinet member for children and young people’s services, announced there would be an internal review of the “very regrettable” case.

But Mrs Hall, who continues to call for a public apology, said the inquiry should be independent and questioned whether it would have the full facts.

The 43-year-old was found to have suffered 18 separate acts of victimisation and “continued and relentless” bullying after acting as a whistleblower to raise concerns over an alleged assault on a child.

This included having her arm twisted behind her back and a ball thrown at her in front of class.

She later lost her job, with school governors and the council said to have deliberately ignored the recommendations of the tribunal, resulting in further hearings and costs.

Mrs Hall said: “The interest payment [which is on top of the £1.5m] is staggering in itself, but overall this has been a waste of taxpayers’ money and it could have been stopped at the very beginning.

“After all the scathing employment tribunal judgements an investigation is finally taking place. “But I’m apprehensive as this is not an independent enquiry conducted by someone outside of the council.

“The other thing is those carrying out this review need to read all the tribunal judgements.

“To do a proper enquiry you need the full facts. I would be willing to help with any information required, but I haven’t been contacted up to now.”

She added: “I want to see lessons learned so this does not happen to anybody else and whistleblowers are protected.

“Senior officers at the council repeatedly suppressed complaints and wrong-doings and failed to act properly.

“Schools should be a safe place and any concerns should be dealt with and investigated properly.”

Earlier this year Mr Justice Langstaff, president of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, said the former teacher’s experiences amounted to an “astonishing” tale.

He said: “[It is] the career of a promising, able and keen teacher effectively destroyed by what happened to her.”

Mrs Hall was said by the tribunal to have a 100 per cent chance of success of becoming a headteacher by the age of 50, something the council challenged.

In assessing the award payable, Employment Judge Ruth Rogerson said: “We acknowledge that we are compensating her for loss of earnings for a significant period of time, but the respondents in this case are the authors of their own misfortune by cutting short the claimant’s career in teaching.”

In a statement Caroline O’Neill, head of education at Durham County Council, said: “The events and actions which took place at this school and resulted in Mrs Hall bringing a successful case to tribunal are certainly regrettable and should not have taken place.

“It is both an unusual and complex set of circumstances which have resulted in the council having to pay out a substantial amount of money when we had limited control of the events and decisions that led to this outcome.

“It is acknowledged that errors were made and a motion calling for an internal inquiry into this case has been passed by full council so that any lessons arising from this can be understood.”