A MANAGER at a crisp factory who was alleged to have humiliated an employee with a severe stammer yesterday denied she had been aggressive.

Kevin Alderson, 40, claims he was badgered into taking part in role-playing session despite making his immediate boss, Mary King, aware that he was strongly opposed to speaking in front of colleagues on account of the acute embarrassment he felt because of his disability.

But Mrs King told an employment tribunal hearing in Newcastle yesterday that Mr Alderson spoke regularly to people working on the line at the Walkers crisp factory, in Peterlee, County Durham.

Mr Alderson, a packaging technician, also alleged that on another occasion Mrs King had left him in tears after she complained to him about a machine breaking down.

But she told the panel she had been ''straight'' with Mr Alderson, adding: "I was definitely not aggressive."

Mr Alderson, of Oswald Terrace, Easington Colliery, County Durham, resigned in May after 23 years at the factory.

Since then he has received psychiatric treatment and has suffered depression.

He is claiming constructive dismissal and that he was the victim of disability discrimination.

The hearing was adjourned until September 11.