Lecturer staring at students’ breasts ‘had wrong lenses in’

AN ENGLISH lecturer was sacked for staring at female students’ breasts and bottoms – but claimed his eyesight was affected by wearing the wrong contact lenses that day.

John Taylor, who taught at a further education college in north Wales, was accused by teenage students of entering their “personal space” and “staring at their tops and cleavage”, a tribunal heard.

But the 53-year-old, who suffers from type 1 diabetes which he says also affects his eyesight, said he had been wearing “old contact lenses” during class and “couldn’t stare at anything” as a result.

After he was fired Mr Taylor sued the college for disability discrimination, but an employment tribunal ruled his behaviour was “not connected to his disability” and dismissed the claim. Other claims of breach of contract, failure to make reasonable adjustments and unfair dismissal succeeded.

The Cardiff tribunal heard Mr Taylor had worked for Grwp Llandrillo

Menai, an education college catering mainly for further education students, for 23 years.

The college has several sites in north Wales. Mr Taylor was employed as a media studies and GCSE English lecturer.

The tribunal heard he was given a written warning in April 2018, after he emphasised the word “cock” when pronouncing a female student’s surname.

The following month Mr Taylor was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and was hospitalised. He returned to work in September.

During a class that month, a group of students as young as 17 complained of Mr Taylor behaving “inappropriately” towards them.

A disciplinary panel judged the allegations of “inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature” to be true, and Mr Jones was dismissed in April 2019 for gross misconduct.

He later appealed against the decision, which was upheld, and launched four claims against his former employer.

Concluding, Employment Judge Robert Vernon said: “The tribunal considered [Mr Jones]’s evidence to be unimpressive.”

Mr Jones’ claims of discrimination on grounds of disability were dismissed – though other claims of breach of contract and failure to make reasonable adjustments due to his disability succeeded.

Another claim of unfair dismissal also succeeded, due to the college’s ‘incompetent’ investigation