EXCLUSIVE
BY JANE HAMILTON Crime Reporter A POLICEMAN who claimed female firearms cops shouldn’t be on duty without a man beside them has landed a plum job – in another male-dominated department.
Sergeant Keith Warhurst, who lost his temporary inspector title in the wake of the row, has been moved to a role within the roads policing unit.
Warhurst sparked furious complaints when he sent the email to colleagues in the firearms department in January last year. It led to one female officer suing Police Scotland for sexual discrimination.
A source said: “Warhurst refused to apologise for sending the email. Instead, he was stripped of his temporary inspector rank and moved into a plum job in emergency planning.
“Now he’s been moved to another privileged role as a sergeant in roads policing while they wait for the dust to settle around the tribunal.
“Perhaps their thinking is to keep him away from as many females as possible which is even worse.
“How can he be expected to change his attitude if he is allowed to work with mostly men? I can’t believe Police Scotland think it is acceptable to put a sergeant accused of sexism into a role that has so few females.”
Last month, we told how an employment tribunal heard Pc Rhona Malone, who still serves with the force, fell victim to “institutional sexism” in its firearms unit.
The 43-year-old was sent an email by Warhurst saying she should always partner with a male colleague due to “obvious differences in physical capacity”.
Warhurst also allegedly referred to another female officer as a “wee lassie”.
Pc Malone took Police Scotland to an employment tribunal after string of alleged examples of sex discrimination.
The impact of the ordeal has forced her to seek early retirement on ill-health grounds. Her lawyer, Margaret Gribbon, told the hearing her client had endured behaviour “designed to get her to take flight from the firearms unit”. Police Scotland could face a six-figure payout if it loses. Last January, an email was sent to officers, including Pc Malone, from acting Insp Warhurst. It read: “I’m going to plunge in with both feet and open myself up to being accused of being sexist! “For operational reasons, I don’t want to see 2 x female officers deployed together when there are sufficient male staff.” A Police Scotland spokesman said: “The officer accepted the wording of this email was unacceptable.”