Bully ing was so bad that I contacted Dignitas
Tribunal claim of official who was taped to chair
‘It has made me become a recluse’ ‘They wanted a younger woman’
A WOMAN who claims she was tied to a chair by bullying colleagues told a tribunal yesterday that she had contacted switzerland’s dignitas clinic with a view to ending her life.
dee-ann fitzpatrick, 49, said she was ‘driven to nearly commit suicide’ after receiving anonymous birthday and Valentine’s cards in the post teasing her about her age, sexuality and gender.
the Canadian national, who works for Marine scotland, said she felt ‘humiliated’ and ‘degraded as a woman’ after a three-year campaign of harassment, which she blamed on male colleagues.
Her claims come just weeks after a picture emerged of her tied to a chair and gagged, prompting first Minister Nicola sturgeon to call for an investigation.
One of the alleged bullies is said to have taken the picture in 2010, after Miss fitzpatrick blew the whistle on what she claims was the misogynistic workplace culture she faced every day.
He allegedly told her: ‘this is what you get when you speak out against the boys.’
Miss fitzpatrick is now pursing an employment tribunal case against the scottish Government, which is responsible for the fisheries watchdog.
On the first day of evidence at the hearing in aberdeen yesterday, she told how the first Valentine’s card arrived in february 2015. Inside was a message describing her as a ‘Canadian jock’ and a ‘dyke’.
Other cards followed in 2016 and 2017, with notes inside such as ‘u is sexy! Lol xx’. One sent after she was signed off work read ‘to an old troll, we miss you NOT’.
Miss fitzpatrick claimed that male colleagues at the office in scrabster, Caithness, nicknamed her ‘Old troll’.
asked by her solicitor, Michael Briggs, about the impact of this alleged ‘bullying culture’, she said: ‘I contacted dignitas in switzerland. I’d had enough.
‘It’s harassment. It’s like stalking. this here has driven me to nearly commit suicide. It has made me become a recluse.’
the tribunal also heard evidence about a ‘tense’ working environ- ment in the office, where the men would ‘gossip and backstab’.
Miss fitzpatrick added: ‘they used to tell me I was past it and they wanted a younger woman in the office. they had a vulgar way of admiring younger girls.’
However, the tribunal heard that two male colleagues, who Miss fitzpatrick named, had never faced criminal charges in relation to her claims and had denied all knowledge of the unwanted cards, which were sent both to her office and her home in Janetstown, near thurso. under cross examination, andrew Gibson, representing Marine scotland, pointed out that Miss fitzpatrick was facing disciplinary charges after allegedly being ‘overzealous’ during a boat inspection in august 2015.
He put it to her that she was not well liked in the local community and the cards could have been from anyone – such as ‘aggrieved or disgruntled fishermen’.
He also asked why the two co-workers that she blamed for sending the cards had never been mentioned to police or to her human resources (Hr) department, both organisations she was in contact with.
she replied: ‘If I complained about anything I was pulled up or disciplined, so I stopped complaining.
‘When people complained, they lost their jobs.
‘It was someone with a sick mind that kept sending them to me because I was a woman working in Marine scotland.’
Miss fitzpatrick said she was still an employee of the fisheries agency but that she had not been at work for some time because of her claims.
she said: ‘I should have gone back last september. Hr insisted that I stayed at home. I believe they said it was for the health and wellbeing of me and others.’
the tribunal continues.