6:49pm Tuesday 23rd September 2008
A LESBIAN soldier who was sexually harassed by a male sergeant will receive substantial compensation for hurt feelings, a tribunal heard today.
Lance Bombardier Kerry Fletcher's career collapsed as a result of the unnamed sergeants actions while she worked at an Army stables in North Yorkshire, the remedy hearing in Leeds was told.
Miss Fletcher, 32, won her claims against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for sex discrimination, victimisation and sexual harassment in an employment tribunal in November last year.
It has been reported she could now be in line for as much as £400,000 compensation.
Today, Monica Carss-Frisk QC, representing the MoD, said Miss Fletchers award for hurt feelings could be at the top end of the scale, which guidelines state is around £25,000.
She said: "We accept that the claimant is going to be given a substantial award for injury to feelings."
In her closing submissions to the tribunal panel, Ms Carss-Frisk said the MoD regretted what had happened.
"Can I make it clear on behalf of the Ministry that, of course, it regrets the events and conduct that are the subject of your findings in the judgment," she said.
But John MacKenzie, representing Miss Fletcher, said she had never received an apology for her treatment.
He said: "An expression of apology for conduct is of enormous significance to the discriminated person, not provided in this case unfortunately.
Mr MacKenzie said Miss Fletcher, who handed in her notice in February this year after serving for ten years, could not remain in the Army after the tribunal.
"We say that the result of the conduct that the tribunal has found on the part of the various members of the Royal Artillery, the result was that the claimant's position in the Royal Artillery became untenable," he said.
The claimant felt unable to continue to serve within the Royal Artillery because she felt she would continue to be victimised and discriminated against.
Mr MacKenzie continued: "The immediate consequence of the act of discrimination is that the claimant's career in the Royal Artillery has collapsed and it's the respondent's conduct that has caused that collapse."
Mr MacKenzie asked the panel to consider making a recommendation that Miss Fletcher be transferred to the RAF.
Ms Carss-Frisk said the MoD did not accept Miss Fletcher had handed in her notice to the Army as a result of the discrimination.
She added that any award for career loss should be modest because it was likely Miss Fletcher would have left the Army anyway and that she would have been unlikely to get a promotion due to her field of work.
The tribunal last year heard that the staff sergeant pestered Miss Fletcher for sex and sent her explicit text messages.
The soldier, who lives in Birmingham but is originally from Sheffield, said the sergeant and other male colleagues tried to destroy her career because she spurned his advances.
The tribunal was adjourned until tomorrow.
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