"Darlington Nurses" vs County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust Tribunal Thread 7

[ThreeWordHarpy]

Thread 1, 7-Oct to 23-Oct; pre-hearing discussion, KD (day 1 of evidence) and BH (day 2).
Thread 2, 23-Oct to 28-Oct; BH (day 2), CH, JP, MG (day 3&4), TH, SS, ST, LL (day 4), JS, AT (day 5)
Thread 3, 28-Oct to 29-Oct; AT (day 5&6), TA (day 6&7)
Thread 4, 29-Oct to 31-Oct; TA, AM (day 7) JB (day 8)
Thread 5, 31-Oct to 04-Nov; JB (day 8), SW, CG, JR (day 9)
Thread 6, 04-Nov to 05-Nov; RH (day 10), SW (day 11)

Five nurses working at Darlington Memorial Hospital have filed a legal case suing their employer, an NHS trust, for sexual harassment and sex discrimination. The nurses object to sharing the women’s changing facilities with a male colleague, Rose, who identifies as female. The hearing started on October 20th, with evidence starting on October 22nd and is scheduled to last 3 weeks. To view the hearing online requests for access had to be made by October 17th. The hearing is being live tweeted by Tribunal Tweets who have background to this case on their substack. An alternative to X is to use Nitter: nitter.net/tribunaltweets or nitter.poast.org/tribunaltweets

The Judge made clear at the start of the public hearing on Day 1 that only TT or press have permission to tweet. If online observers see/hear something in the court that isn’t reported by TT, we don’t mention it until the next time there’s a break. This is a very cautious approach to avoid any accusations of “live reporting” on MN. Commentary on the content of TT tweets is fine as soon as they’re posted on X.

Key people:
C/Ns - Claimants, the Darlington nurses
R/T/Trust - Respondent, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
J/EJ – Judge/Employment Judge Seamus Sweeney
NF - Niazi Fetto KC, barrister for claimants
SC - Simon Cheetham, KC, barrister for respondents
RH - Rose Henderson, trans identifying nurse
CG – Clare Gregory, NHS ward manager
SW - Sue Williams, NHS Trust HR
KD – Karen Danson, first claimant to give evidence.
BH – Bethany Hutchison, claimant
AH – Alistair Hutchison, husband of Bethany
CH – Carly Hoy, claimant
JP – Jane Peveller, claimant
MG – Mary Anne (aka Annice) Grundy, claimant
TH – Tracy Hooper, claimant
SS – Siobhan Sinclair, witness for the claimants, retired from Trust
ST – Sharron Trevarrow, witness for the claimants, retired from Trust, former housekeeper and wellbeing officer
LL – Lisa Lockey, claimant
JP – Professor Jo Phoenix, expert witness
JS – Jane Shields, witness for the claimants
AT - Andrew Thacker, NHS trust Head of HR
TA – Tracy Atkinson, NHS trust HR.
AM – Andrew Moore, NHS Head of Workforce Experience
JB – Jillian Bailey, NHS Workforce Experience Manager
AT – Anna Telfer, NHS Deputy Director of Nursing
SW – Sandra Watson, Matron for General and Elective Surgery
JR – Jodie Robinson, manager of Rose

Well I must be showing my age 😀, cos I certainly didn't change with the girls throughout my school career, from 4½ to 16. I'm sure it would have been unthinkable. But times change, and sometimes not for the better.

We had to do cross country runs around part of Greenwich park in those horrible lampshade style PE skirts - no tracksuit bottoms allowed, even in the winter. Although at least in the winter there weren't quite so many tourists to watch us huffing and puffing up the hill.

Oh, I’d forgotten about that!

Wow how did the BBC let that slip through the net?

is it part of a sudden imperative to notice such stories I wonder?

The NHS has a misogynist problem running throughout. The older I get, the less fit for purpose it is.

Will there be any consequences to the architects of this horrorshow? Its not the first time they've been to a tribunal or accused of bullying. Does the Trust need a complete clear out?

The BBC's gender correspondant is probably busy sulking that this has been published (albeit buried in Tees local news)!

#SadTimes

Perhaps you can report on GC issues if everything is “in quotes”

Heavy weather for the “ button on that report.

As per the Supreme Court Ruling
they HAVE to win on the single sex spaces
its the harrassment that will be v tricky

the Peggie outcome will come out first
and that will set the bar

we are also waiting on Bailey v Stonewall

I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this article but Gendered Intelligence have been 'training' the NHS amongst many, many other organisations including Girl Guides

https://archive.ph/OJSvl

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/07/trans-activists-influencing-british-schools-sports-nhs/

Interesting use of photos in those two articles. BBC has an appallingly out of focus picture of Rose with her long hair and dress whilst the DM is sticking with the jeans t shirt and beer belly photo previously in circulation.

Thanks. I found that very helpful. So Phoenix's evidence speaks to the fact that the H&S violation (failure to provide single-sex changing) is ipso facto a violation of the Equality Act, since that failure impacts more on women than on men?

Yup. That's me.

Thank you for the lovely comments here. Also for the anthropology and the discussion about hideous communal changing rooms.

It was nice to be in an employment tribunal and to be cross examined by a KC not being an attack dog - just being a KC. That he asked pretty much nothing substantive is a good sign - I think. The Judge just wanted clarification and I was desperate to give him more but he didn't want it.

I did think it was funny that I ended with very physical description of being a woman.

This is correct. I was asked to supply expertise in relation to indirect discrimination and not lawfulness of policy

Swoons slightly at Jo turning up this evening !!!

💐

For us it was an excellent bit of tribunal watching after days of watching the Trust squirming to try and defend the indefensible.

Was delighted to hear you being so sensible @JoPhoenixit shouldn’t be necessary, what with it being obvious n all, but was grateful for your clear and detailed answers.

@JoPhoenix I think your report will be a go to document, until, if and when this nonsense is all over.

It spoke to me and explained why i have so many moments of fear that i could not easily explain

i found myself sandwiched between to men on a long haul flight and cried hysterically i was vey embarrassed about it at the time.

I'm so sorry to read this. I'm sorry you had that experience.

Xx

I'm so sorry to read this. I'm sorry you had that experience.

Xx

Thanks our Jo if i may call you that xxx

Surely no weight would be given to Andrew Thacker's ignorant opinion that men & women feel the same about undressing in the presence of the opposite sex? Thacker is clearly ill-informed about so many things that no judge could pay him any heed after hearing Jo P's evidence and reading her expert witness statement.

Of course you can! You lot kept me going through my own tribunal - gardening as well as the fantastic commentary during the hearing. I would read and reread the threads every evening. They kept me from falling apart. Fact. I also loved the humour. I loved it when women were talking about my former head's theme tune -- the imperial march of Darth Vadar. Pml

Delurking to say I am undertaking a slow read of War & Peace, basically a chapter a day for the whole of 2025. I’m at the part where the French, thinking they were victorious and expecting Moscow to be theirs, are beating a retreat and losing thousands of troops on the way.

I remember those awful communal changing rooms back in the 1970's. The other problem with them was that if you turned your back on your belongings to look for a mirror then you risked having your handbag, or even your shoes, swiped!

There were "bad girls" who went out on Saturday into Chester to Top Shop, Etam and Dorothy Perkins thieving, so I wonder if that was another reason for changing from communal changing rooms to curtained cubicles?

Cubicles didn't do away with the problem entirely. You would always go shopping with a friend so there would be two of you crammed into one cubicle, taking it in turns to go to the mirror so there was always one of you in the cubicle guarding your stuff.

Thanks for fighting, Jo. It's so much appreciated 🙏