"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

I bet Noel watches the tribunal with a large coffee and a big smile.

The pregnancy breasts question is utterly grim, but when did that happen? Was it mentioned yesterday? I hadn’t heard about it until this thread and can’t see the source

Many thanks to the valiant transcribers, @MyrtleLion in particular. I've been catching up with my jaw on the floor at some of this evidence. The vindictiveness of the HR to the 26 nurses is just staggering.

"Nice nursing career/work visa you've got there. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it..."

Is it uncontested, though? Do we know it’s in the bundle/sworn? I cant see SC agreeing that

I found the May 2025 Quarterly Update on Employee relations. I'm not sure the 7 disciplinary cases necessarily refer to the Darlington nurses, or at least not all of them, because there are only 4 current cases listed that fall under their Care Group, and the reasons for those don't quite map onto the details of the case.

I wonder if it's the investigation that is paused, and the outcome of the investigation determines whether they go to a (next stage) disciplinary panel?

(Haven't quite caught up yet, so not sure if this point has been made already:)

I think what's uncontested is the fact that a nurse reported to a colleague that Henderson had made the pregnancy/breasts comments, not that he actually did make those comments. So presumably, the question of whether he did so or not is moot, as far as the submitted evidence goes. -- i.e. the Trust has made no concession that he made the remarks.

There was a later tweet from them to say that she was the person who handed out the 26 grievance letters to the nurses while they were on shift.

I feel a "well I would have asked her about this, but I can't" will be in the submissions

Ah. Why didn't the the claimants KC ask him about that then? He asked him about lots of other parts of his behaviour.

They're all Dolores Umbridge. Enjoy hurting people with less power than they have in sadistic ways (e.g. by releasing the names of the nurses to Rose so he could bully them, dragging things out, making the workplace toxic, making them changing in a totally inappropriate space as punishment, telling them they're in the wrong even when they're obviously in the right 'I must not tell lies' etc).

JK writes Dolores really, really well. This is who they are.

If the HR at this trust could have made the nurses write with a magic quill that branded the words 'it's a female penis' on the back of their hands I bet they'd have done so.

Dolores was bad enough when she was just one teacher (with power from the Ministry) at Hogwarts and the rest were decent humans. Now imagine if ALL the teachers had been Dolores Umbridge and instead of Hogwarts the school was called 'the NHS'. There you have it.

Where he had a witness to contradict Rose. But if this nurse has backed out, he can’t rely on what she told someone else.

I hadn't realised that the nurses who backed out were essentially bullied into doing so. So very nasty.

Oh my God, the pregnancy, breast and scissor thing??

I've read TT and the threads but the scissors are eluding me. Please will someone explain?

Noel Scanlon is at York and Scarborough trust now

It’s a quote from Christian Legal Centre press release saying these are elements of uncontested evidence. So allegations were put in witnesses statements and the respondents didn’t dispute them or get anyone to deny them.

Not on TT because they haven’t reported the witness statements- in fact the statements haven’t been provided outside a few emails to journalists- and sitting in a bundle in the room that there is no room for the public to attend.

There was something strange going on yesterday.

Huge delay before the session started when maybe Judge was talking to Barristers about how Rose/Tyler would be questioned?

Then when the Claimants Barrister was questioning Rose/Tyler there were a lot of times when he was asked to look at things in the bundles and asked if he agreed. Then, unlike with previous witnesses, they were not read out, so we don't know what they were.

Maybe some of them were about the "pregnancy breasts" or the "scissors"?

What was the thing about scissors anyway??

I was told by a senior police officer years ago that they had changed their PR strategy when deep in the doodoo. Instead of denials, cover-up etc, the savvy thing to do is throw your hands up, say you’re horrified, and pledge to get to the bottom of it all (Lessons Will Be Learned) and deal appropriately. Why do these NHS Trusts think doubling down is a good idea?
Edited, unfortunate typo

It's in this press release

https://christianconcern.com/ccpressreleases/rose-gives-evidence-at-darlington-nurses-hearing/

Also on CC website is this

'In Rose’s evidence, he has also committed to pursuing an internal complaint against nurses, ‘once their claims are out of the way’.'

https://christianconcern.com/ccpressreleases/rose-gives-evidence-at-darlington-nurses-hearing/

Link for the above

Thank you! Bloody Nora!

Swinging scissors and threats to pursue nurses

Evidence presented included reports of Henderson walking around the hospital swinging 15cm scissors in a manner described as “dangerous and threatening.”

In Rose’s evidence, he has also committed to pursuing an internal complaint against nurses, ‘once their claims are out of the way’.

(CROSS POST!)

Bastard.

The firing squad are all lined up on those nurses the moment this court case is done.

She sounds like a peach, doesn’t she?

I have been having a look at the Christian Legal Centre website for info on the early days of the case (which is very well documented) and came across the timeline of events. These three in particular struck me as interesting:

2025

• 27 March: The Royal College of Nursing writes to the Darlington Trust, telling them that they are acting unlawfully and need to provide single-sex changing facilities “without delay”.
• 2 April: Employment Judge Stuart Robertson adjourns the nurses’ case to October, saying if the Trust does not now comply with proceedings, “it does so at its peril”.
• 3 April: The Director of Workforce at the Trust re-published the ‘Transitioning in the Workplace Policy’, reiterating that a biological man can use the women’s changing rooms. (😯)

It's absolutely insane!

Ffs.

is this we find elsewhere, that signalling to their allies, is more important than a favourable outcome?