Some extracts for people who don't want to click the link:
'There is absolutely no suggestion that Rose – who has a female partner, with whom he was trying to start a family – intended to cause her physical harm on that day, in 2023, but she insists Rose’s (half-dressed) presence, and behaviour, felt menacing.
She calls Rose ‘he’ through this interview, stressing that ‘everything about Rose is male, apart from the name’.
At first, when I saw Rose in there, in these boxers with holes that you could see through, I thought I was in the wrong changing room or mistaken. I was concentrating on getting something out of my locker when I heard this male voice behind me saying, “Are you not getting changed yet?”.
‘I looked over my shoulder and he was looking over his, just staring. I felt uncomfortable. I could feel the hair standing up on my arm. I just kept looking for my lip cream or whatever, but all I could think was “there is a man in the changing room”.
From there, she had a conversation with Beth Hutchison, who would emerge as the nurses’ leader. Beth had heard from other nurses that they had been concerned about Rose’s presence and behaviour. Another nurse believed Rose had been staring at their breasts. ‘When Beth saw how upset I was about even the thought of going in the changing room, she said, “No, this isn’t right”.’
Beth had a word with her superior, but when word of the nurses quiet concerns reached the HR department, they were, they claim, smacked down. The women were told it was Rose’s right to be in that changing room, and they could change elsewhere (‘they basically gave us a glorified cupboard,’ says Karen) if it was a problem.
‘Being told we needed to be “re-educated” was devastating,’ says Karen. ‘To make it worse they suggested that Rose should be the one re-educating us. Rose would be happy to do it, they said.’
She tells me that last summer, after legal papers had been served and after The Mail on Sunday had broken the story of the Darlington nurses, Karen needed an urgent hysterectomy, after years of problems with endometriosis. It was to be carried out at the Darlington Memorial – where everyone involved worked – but just a few weeks before the procedure she discovered, to her horror, that Rose was scheduled to be on duty in the operating theatre on that day, and would be part of the surgical team.
‘It was a gynaecological procedure, and his role would have been down at that end, passing the consultant the tools,’ she says, incredulous. She immediately pointed out the obvious (as she thought) issue here. ‘I told them that because there was a legal dispute under way, involving Rose, it was a conflict of interest, and entirely inappropriate that he should be involved in my surgery, especially intimate surgery like that.
‘The theatre manager also said, “How would Rose feel if she was asked not to come to theatre?”.’
Absolutely shocking 😮