"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

We always ask - we don't always get. Usually after the fact.

I had a C barrister tell me that I could have a copy of his skeleton provided I didn't critique him on it.

Submissions tomorrow.

Thank you - fingers crossed

That just underlines for me how groundbreaking your work is - there's no precedent for this type of organised citizen reporting so it's down to the individual judges and lawyers.

Every now and then there's a thread on Reddit bemoaning how organised our side is, which always makes me laugh in a grim way. Women have been bearing the brunt of organisational work for centuries; it's hardly surprising we are good at it.

You've reminded me of a HG Wells book, probably War of the Worlds, where a man rushes out of a room 'ejaculating'! I always assumed it meant 'exclaiming'.

In old films, 1930s-ish, characters will sometimes talking of 'making love' and, from the context, it seems more like 'courting'.

However "criminal conversation" was a euphemisim for adultery - back in the days when a wife was property so sleeping with her was damage to the husband's goods and her lover could be sued for compensation.

No harm in occasionally reminding us of what a thread is about, even if you weren't doing that Zebracat
I'm convinced - and I may have seen a programme or read an article confirming this, but I can't remember, sorry - that there was a big gay input into Hollywood films behind the scenes, and they put little references into the films when they could get away with it.
Am I reading too much into the 'Woman's Touch' scene from Calamity Jane? Maybe, but is 'Once I Had A Secret Love' anything other than three-and-a-half glorious minutes of a beautifully sung, wonderfully acted lesbian subtext??
edited to remove link as it didnt seem to work.
Well worth a watch on youtube

"He is as fine a fellow," said Mr. Bennet, as soon as they were out of the house, "as ever I saw. He simpers, and smirks, and makes love to us all.”

Mr Wickham hopefully wasn’t sexing the entire Bennet clan up. 🫤

A relic of my catholic upbringing, pun intended, is a recollection that very short, one sentence prayers were called 'ejaculations'.

I saw a t-shirt that said SUDDEN PRAYERS MAKE GOD JUMP,
which was a good argument against ejaculations, wasn't it?

😁 That must where Madonna got the inspiration for Like a Prayer.

I can’t see the word ‘ejaculate’ without thinking of that Yorkshire joke I saw on a mug. I’ve put a picture on as it made me laugh.

It is interesting that older terms like "intercourse" and "conversation" conceptualise sexual activity as a form of communication between two people.

You could say that a relationship might be "diluted" if the other becomes "emotionally intimate" with someone else but becomes "adulterated" if they feel betrayed by the other's affection for a potential rival - but "adultery" in law requires physical consummation: "criminal conversation".

I find communication and the interaction between language and behaviour fascinating.

For example, I thought Section 21 of the Expert Witness Report, "Modesty, privacy and dignity in international and regional legal instruments" showed how the Trust's enforcement of bodily exposure and voyeurism on the Nurses communicated its lack of respect for the Darlington Nurses, for women in general and for the principle of "informed consent".

What a great way to inculcate Rape Culture into an organisation responsible for the care and safety of women when they are at their most vulnerable!

A reminder that flowers (even a rose bush if you like) can be planted in the garden named Support the Darlington Nurses and that the funds go direct to the lawyers. The garden is filling up slowly but plenty of space left.

Another reminder that I have a hospital appointment tomorrow morning and won't be able to live paste. I may be back for the afternoon session if required.

I hope someone else can paste.

I think the nurses have seen enough of Roses bush to last a lifetime. 😉

Where is the laugh emoji when you need it?!🤣

In the carriage home Mr Elton "proceeded to make violent love" to Emma.

Holmes and Watson loud exclamations were always "ejaculations", to the sniggering of our teenage selves reading them all.

Well played!

It did mean courting but then in ‘60s 70s and early ‘80s meant sex.

I think the change to ‘have sex’ went with a change in attitude where sex without a relationship of any kind became more accepted and more common.

‘Sex’ on its own rather than ‘have sex’ was used to mean sexual intercourse though. As in a pp ‘No sex please we’re British’.

The Good Law Project is attempting to sue the England and Wales Cricket Board over its ban on TW in Women's cricket. Apparently a pool player lost a similar case. Hope they've got deep pockets!

www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2025/11/10/good-project-group-dismantle-british-sports-transgender-ban/

It's behind a paywall. See here for the article freely available via MSN:

Meet the Remainer lawyer trying to dismantle British sports’ transgender ban

Gloriously inept timing, with the IOC decision and the BBC scandal....

Well he has gotta spend all that money he has raised on more than just his salary.

a grift that keeps on grifting ….

😂😫😂😫

I’m just checking as I get muddled, and have something else on tomorrow which I’d need to cancel:

I think I should be logging into the tribunal for 10am tomorrow for oral submissions. Is that right?

This!