Female govt wins payout after male colleague slapped her backside at lodge bar earlier than accusing her of mendacity – regardless of it being caught on CCTV

A female executive has won a sexual harassment case against her male colleague who slapped her on the bottom and bit her ear before claiming she made it up.

Joanne Attridge began work on a project for DB Engineering & Consulting alongside Gerry Skelton in 2021. 

They were working on a bid for a contract involving the rail network in Toronto, Canada.

On January 27, 2022, they attended a UK team ‘dinner and drinks’, which ended with them returning to a hotel bar where the whole team were all staying.

A drunk Mr Skelton then repeatedly put his arm around the business development director, slapped her on the bottom twice and bit her earlobe.

‘[Ms Attridge] was in the bar along with other members of the team when she was approached by Mr Skelton,’ an employment tribunal said.

‘It is not in dispute that he had been drinking alcohol and in all likelihood was somewhat the worse for wear.

‘During his interaction with [her], Mr Skelton put his arm around her more than once. We accept that [she] did not welcome his advances and was uncomfortable.

‘During this time Mr Skelton slapped [her] on her bottom twice and we accept that he also leaned into her and bit her earlobe.

‘None of that was remotely invited by [Ms Attridge] and we accept that she was shocked and upset by it.’

Ms Attridge complained to her bosses, who launched an investigation but decided to remove her from the Toronto project to ‘protect’ her.

Mr Skelton, a consultant, was not suspended, because the panel concluded that doing so before bids for the contract had closed would have been ‘potentially damaging to an important business opportunity’.

While the investigation was under way, Ms Attridge wrote to bosses asking why Mr Skelton had not been suspended, voicing surprise at the company’s response given the ‘Me Too’ movement.

The tribunal heard that Ms Attridge had been off sick since the incident – due to a combination of illness, surgery and then stress and anxiety.

In March 2023, she had a meeting with a female manager about coming back to work but was instead told that her role was ‘no longer’ available and that there were no projects in the UK for her.

Instead, she was offered the job of office manager, which led her to resign the following month.

Mr Skelton denied the complaints made against him, saying she was not ‘his cup of tea’ and would not ‘make his list’ even if there was ‘a shortage of women’, the tribunal heard.

He insisted she made up the scenario and that she thought ‘every man with a pulse has designs on her’.

The tribunal heard that when he was interviewed about Ms Attridge’s allegations against him he was not aware there was CCTV footage of the incident.

‘Mr Skelton denied that he had either bitten [her] ear or touched her on her bottom,’ the hearing was told.

‘He said that he had been drinking but was only “merry” and not drunk and that he had no loss of memory of the events in question.

‘Mr Skelton sought to divert any wrongdoing on his part firmly onto the [Ms Attridge].

‘He maintained that [she] had been badgering him about being appointed to a senior HR role in Canada which she was not suitable for because of a lack of experience.

‘He said that he had no sexual interest in [her], that she would not “make his list” even if there was a shortage of women and that she was not his “cup of tea”.

‘He maintained that she liked to tell people that she had been pursued by men in a former employment and that she believed that “every man with a pulse has designs on her”.

‘He contended that he was being “set up”.’

However, when confronted by investigators with CCTV of the incident – in which he could be seen clearly slapping her bottom – Mr Skelton immediately resigned and blamed his behaviour on free alcohol provided by the company.

He resigned in April 2022 before disciplinary proceedings against him could take place.

In his letter of resignation, he wrote: ‘This was an event that had at its core a free alcohol laden evening and one which in hindsight should never have been allowed to be so alcohol laden with the company paying for significant amounts of wine, beer, spirits and cocktails across the whole of the night.’

Ms Attridge is now in line for compensation after successfully suing the rail engineering firm for sexual harassment, victimisation, sex discrimination and unfair dismissal for the way they responded to her complaints.

Ms Attridge started work with the German company in May 2018, working in their Birmingham and Derby offices.

Before the tribunal she told her employers: ‘I believe that you have discriminated against me due to being a woman and am considered as a “discrimination complainer”.’

The tribunal found that bosses had decided they did not want to keep employing her following her complaints against Mr Skelton.

Employment Judge Elizabeth Heap said: ‘There was no genuine redundancy situation…and the fact that [Ms Attridge] was “out” and [DB Engineering] would not want to employ her had been decided over a year previously in circumstances that could only relate to the fact that she had complained of sexual harassment.’

The tribunal upheld her claims of unfair dismissal and sexual harassment and partially upheld other claims of victimisation, sex discrimination and harassment.

Her compensation will be decided at a later date.