THE outcome of a council inquiry into the circumstances which destroyed a promising teacher’s career and led to a compensation bill for more than £1.5 million should be known in June.

Last October, following a motion put before Durham County Council, the authority revealed there would be an internal review of Karen Hall’s case.

But the inquiry was delayed while remaining legal matters concerning a claim for unfair dismissal and victimisation were dealt with.

Now, several months later, authority members have been advised that a report will go to full council in June.

A series of employment judgements have been scathing of the council’s treatment of Mrs Hall, a former teacher at West Cornforth Primary School, who was bullied and lost her job.

The authority failed to reinstate Mrs Hall or follow tribunal recommendations and continued to challenge the findings through the courts.

Last year the former teacher, whose compensation includes payment for loss of earnings and pension contributions, said she was angry that no disciplinary action had been taken against any of the individuals involved.

The Northern Echo has put a series of questions to Durham County Council in order to try to establish the scope of the inquiry, what steps have been taken to ensure impartiality and whether Mrs Hall or anybody else has been interviewed.

Durham County Councillor Alex Watson, who proposed the motion calling for a ‘lessons learned’ inquiry, said: “We need to know that this can’t happen again.

“It has been a sad state of affairs and resulted in a huge, record breaking compensation sum which taxpayers will inevitably pick up.”

Caroline O’Neill, head of education at Durham County Council, said: “We can confirm that an independent inquiry is underway following the conclusion, at the beginning of this year, of legal proceedings in relation to this matter.

“This has been an unusual and complex case and the inquiry, which is being carried out by our internal audit service, will seek to ensure any lessons arising from it can be understood.

“We expect that a full report will be made to full council in June.”