A FORMER police officer has secured a substantial payout from Police Scotland over claims she was sexually harassed by a male colleague who had an "unusual obsession" with sex crimes.
The female officer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, raised an action suing the force for £200,000 claiming superiors failed to act on her concerns about another officer who "unnecessarily attempted to discuss the details of sex crimes" with her.
The woman claimed he "invaded her personal space" and "touched her every time he passed her".
She also alleged that Police Scotland's failure to act on her complaints amounted to a "breach of duties of reasonable care".
Lawyer Peter Crooks, who acted on behalf of the pursuer, confirmed the action settled prior to the court hearing, but refused to reveal the amount paid out.
However, he added: "She is very pleased with agreed settlement. She now views the matter as closed and wishes to move on with her life."
Court papers reveal the officers began working together within an area of Strathclyde Police in 2010.
They state the male officer had been moved there due to allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards other female colleagues.
The documents add: "From the first day the pursuer met [her colleague] she felt uncomfortable in his presence. Within a week of them working together [he] began invading her personal space.
"She felt intimidated, alarmed and distressed by this behaviour."
The papers also state: "[He] had an unusual obsession with sex crimes. Whenever a sex crime was reported, [he] would endeavour to know the most intricate details, regardless of whether he had been assigned to deal with the matter or whether it had happened within his designated sub-division."
The woman claims she reported her concerns to superiors, however Police Scotland's response in court documents says she did not disclose the allegations about his obsession with sex crimes and only told of feeling intimidated because he stood close to her.
The force found that the officer involved did not intend to cause problems by doing so.
The PC claimed she began to have panic attacks and developed an anxiety disorder and was signed off work in July 2011 for three months.
When she returned, she was transferred to another office but still had to speak to the officer on occasion.
She was later signed off sick again and took the decision to retire due to ill health in March 2013, after 30 years' service with the force.
Police Scotland denied her claims, however a spokeswoman for the force confirmed a settlement had been agreed with their former employee.
The officer accused of harassing her was cleared of sexually assaulting three female colleagues in 2012 and no longer works at the force.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel