Court cases/Judicial Reviews/ET/ETAs

[ArabellaScott]

A thread of court cases involving people with 'gender critical' beliefs. So they are all in one place. I'll try and add links to court judgements where I can find them.

I'll add cases as I have time but please feel free to add others and/or remind me of any I've missed!

1. Maria McLachlan, Tara Wolf. Assault by beating/battery.

https://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/04/27/trans-identified-male-tara-wolf-charged-assault-hyde-park-attack/

'Tara Wolf (also known as Tara Flik Wood), a trans-identified male, stood trial for striking 60-year-old Maria MacLachlan three times in Hyde Park on September 13th 2017, where women had gathered to attend a meeting called “We Need to Talk About Gender” at a yet-to-be-disclosed location. Wolf was found guilty of “assault by beating,” more commonly known as “battery.”'

Oh, excellent news, it's evidently a huge relief for her. It's a scandal that her case and similar ones ever gained traction; let's hope that this will discourage further the Police and CPS in these kinds of events.

The Darlo nurses have won! Cannot link by phone, sorry. It’s in the Mail.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0jv9l5n32zo

https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/ms-b-hutchinson-and-others-v-county-durham-and-darlington-nhs-foundation-trust/

The Darlington Nurses

-v-

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

A great big WIN!!!

Sadly, they were unable to prove that "Rose" had harassed them personally. What they reported him as saying was when he was alone with them, IIRC. It's a he said - she said situation, when there is no second witness.

Still, it's a right result!

Thanks for bumping this thread, as I'd completely missed the main one! off to read with a cup of coffee...

https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/sex-matters-v-the-mayor-and-commonalty-and-citizens-of-the-city-of-london/

Sex Matters - case dismissed. Hampstead Ponds.

Dismissing it for the claim being both too early and too late is an unexpected result.

It seems that they jumped the gun and should have gone to the county court and that individuals should have brought their own claims, not SM. Grauniad link, sorry...

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/29/judge-blocks-charitys-challenge-over-trans-peoples-use-of-hampstead-ponds-single-sex-facilities

Sex Matters, a UK-wide gender-critical campaign group, sought to take legal action against the City of London, which manages the bathing ponds in north London, arguing that allowing trans people to use the facilities for the gender with which they identified amounted to sex discrimination.

It followed a supreme court ruling last year which determined the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act refer only to a biological woman and to biological sex, and do not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates.

In a ruling throwing out the legal action on Thursday, Mrs Justice Lieven said the “appropriate forum” for such a claim was through an individual at the county court, rather than the high court.

She said: “In my view the more appropriate person to bring this claim is an individual who says that they have been discriminated against by decisions about access to the ponds.”

There follows some dishonest guff about the COL consultation, which didn't mention the thousands of votes which were thrown away.

It's not very Open Justice™️ is it?

I thought citizens were supposed to be able to seek redress through the courts, not be ping-ponged about bureaucratically from one court to another on the basis of technicalities.

I also 'enjoyed' the airy hand waving away of the fact that individuals can't necessarily afford to bring their own claim through the county courts.

So just more stonewalling? I'm sure right will prevail at the Ponds eventually, but why does every single step have to be fought for?

It’s especially galling, i think, @duc748because, if the judgment had gone t’other way - we know full well that new policies would have been implemented the next frigging day.

Michael Foran’s update was very useful. I hope he’ll do one of his zoom things about it.

Absolutely!

https://archive.is/PtmZr

Custody officer loses ET against GeoAmey over his refusal to use female pronouns for.males.

Appeal expected

'A prison officer who was sacked after refusing to call male-born inmates “she” has lost an employment tribunal.
David Toshack, 51, was dismissed by GEOAmey, one of the UK’s largest security firms, after objecting to calling transgender prisoners by their chosen pronoun.
Mr Toshack, who is an Army veteran and a Christian, was days away from completing his training period to become a prison custody officer at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court when he was dismissed in January last year.
He took GEOAmey to an employment tribunal on the grounds of unlawful discrimination and harassment for his gender-critical beliefs.'

Faye Russell-Caldicott's ET starts today. The only remaining ground is indirect discrimination due to religion/belief & harassment.

Faye's garden needs work. Check our Crowdjustice.

Jennifer Melle v Epsom St Helier's

Settlement agreed

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2vlxdnnpqo

Thanks for that, it's awful to read that, despite being cleared, Jennifer still faces a disciplinary from the NMC. Also, if people win their cases, employers and other organisations ought not to be able to force them into NDAs.

That thought struck me too. Are NDAs really appropriate, thiis is public money we're talking about.

Yes, we don't get to learn what was found by the tribunal, it's hardly conducive to open justice. I can see a case for keeping the size of any financial compensation confidential, to avoid begging letters. That said, it should be reported that the winner has been paid.

I think there could be a legal challenge on this basis. This is taxpayers money that's been used for this witch hunt of Jennifer. The public should know the outcome. I hope someone like Sex Matters takes it on and I'd happily contribute to a crowdfunder.

Excellent point. Would be worth lodging an FOI asking for the Trust's total spend on NDAs. There can be no good reason for a public body using them, and many bad reasons for them wanting to silence people.

Is this thread archived or saved anywhere? Threads are being deleted quite frequently and rapidly in recent weeks.
There is so much work, effort and time in this one.

Fair point, endifthelinefinally. I haven't archived it so far.