"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

from TT
J Is that u covering the purpose point. As high as yr putting it. Bearing in mind statute 6. yr putting that the Cx shld go nowhere but Rose's shld go regardless of the feelings about him
😱

Individual arse covering vs being witnesses on behalf of the trust?

J sums it up precisely - as we all know the process is the punishment

The judge seems to think the witness is as dim witted as he is.

WTF?

Has the Judge just intervened to say "FFS you need to ask her this as if she is a 5 year old"?

I think the Judge rather wishes that he was barristering today.

From TT

J And the process was to make the Cs lives difficult and to create a hostile and intim enveronment. I'm not sure the witness understands this. U have to put this directly like u did to Rose
NF In fairness yes
J we apol for talking over you

NF We've asked u about the stressful impact of this and the GX hanging over. The purpose u had in this process was [sound gone] [Heard the word hostile]
J Is that your questioning. We may have Qs.
SC I have a Q
J We may break the rules and us leave the room

J And the process was to make the Cs lives difficult and to create a hostile and intim enveronment. I'm not sure the witness understands this. U have to put this directly like u did to Rose
NF In fairness yes
J we apol for talking over you

Hmmm... what was all that about? Was it to clarify things for the witness?

The panel is shortly going to leave the room!!!!!! Rather than throwing all out in order to discuss if they have questions!

Wonders will never cease.

I took it as the judge clarifying what NF was trying to get to

I think they should form an impromptu flash mob to while away the time.

Jesus. How is that justified? No need at all for him to know. Some cases I can see you would need to know who had complained but not this one.

The fact he is straight and might have been staring or on his phone makes it worse, but even if he were gay, gone in blindfolded and been in and out at the speed of light it still wouldn't have been OK for him to be going in the women's CR.

From TT

SC I'm happy to break w tradition. Go to p? U tried to recall when Cs told SN wld be the investigator. Was it this letter u had in mind?
SW Yes it was
J Why dont we leave whilst we think if we have any Qs. You'll be left in an awkward silence or talking about the football..

I think the Judge was trying to make sure that NF wasn't going to rely on something in his closing arguments that he hadn't explicitly asked SW.

To a non-lawyer it did feel a bit like J was coaching NF.

From TT

J ..but you cant talk about the case. We'll be as quick as possible
[background chatter]

I see the judge is still referring to Rose by his first name, he's not done this with anyone else. I wonder if it's to avoid the Mr/Mrs/Ms/etc issue if he used the surname.

Also, think the judge has called Rose 'he' this morning.

All witnesses done.

We are done now until Friday 10am for JP.

Looking forward to Jo Pheonix tomorrow

Judges are well paid
because they have the patience of saints

I wonder if the Judge leaving was because they wasted time rounding up the witness and lawyers last time. This way they can be in and out very quickly.

I'm also surprised they haven't broken for lunch.

Though maybe he just wants to ask the panel if they have any questions and if they don't then they'll break.

Oh Friday, sorry

Yes, it is to avoid having to refer to him as Miss, I suspect, but also to avoid referring to him as Mr.

He should just be referred to as blessed one.

From TT

J Thank you everyone. We have no further Qs and SC has unusually completed his Q 1st
NF That completes the Cs evidence

J We have no sitting tomorrow. We'll have a shortened version of Prof P on Friday which will be finished by lunchtime
NF Yes
[discuss submissions timetable]

No they'll be reading the Racing Post again -
Pass the Buck in the 2.25 in Dundalk
Tales of Bravery in the 1 o'clock at Chepstow😁

in response to the J referring to talking about football

Thank you @MyrtleLion