Sacked fireman ‘shared nude pictures of women

Female colleague complained over ‘inappropriate messages’

ASACKED West Midlands Fire Service firefighter posted ‘29 snaps of naked and topless women’ in a WhatsApp group, a tribunal heard.

Nigel Hobby was among five Dudley White Watch employees dismissed without notice for gross misconduct after a female colleague complained over allegedly inappropriate messages.

Mr Hobby, Matthew Wagstaff, Karl Donnelly, Carl Hill and Steven Hunter claim they were unfairly dismissed.

They are challenging the decision at a tribunal and demanding their jobs back.

They claim they were “hung, drawn and quartered from day one” when the woman, named only as Person E, raised a grievance over comments allegedly made towards her and “sexist” Whatsapp posts.

Four other colleagues, who were also in the group, were given warnings by the fire service.

Person E is now off work with no return date after suffering with post traumatic stress disorder over the case.

Mr Hobby had shared “sexually explicit” images of women to the group, the tribunal heard this week. He said he had not deemed the posts inappropriate at the time as Person E had contributed posts that were “bad if not worse” to the chat.

The tribunal was told Mr Hobby, who was also a supervisor within the watch, posted a video of a female attending a job interview and opening her legs, to be told “You’ve got the job.”

He had explained in the subsequent investigation he had ‘thought it was funny at the time’, said Elizabeth Hodgetts, representing Person E.

Another post to the group showed 29 topless or naked women, she told the hearing.

As an explanation for sharing a sexually explicit video of a male, Mr Hobby said it had been “a bit of light humour”.

Asked if he acknowledged sharing such sexually explicit images of women was “sexist and therefore discriminatory”, he told the tribunal it was “never my intention but I can see it can be perceived that way.”

He added: “Now after further educating myself, I can see that it is unacceptable.”

He added that he “normally” would not have deemed it appropriate to post such images but “the way that Person E was, she was part of that group and contributed. I should have made a better judgment call and I didn’t.”

Another video posted in the WhatsApp chat showed a man shooting himself in the head, the tribunal was told.

Mr Hobby said he had shared it as it was “shocking” and had been part of a wider conversation with some, but not all, of the colleagues within the group.

The post had been a “lack of judgment”, he admitted.

Allegations of a video, said to depict individuals “throwing hand sanitiser over Person E” as she checked equipment, were investigated.

However, the probe found no physical evidence the video existed and it was therefore dropped before the disciplinary hearing.

Mr Hobby said the rumour of the video being circulated had been “completely fabricated”, causing “stress” to himself and other colleagues accused of being involved.

He told the hearing: “I felt no weight had been put to the emotional stress and turmoil that we had been through.It is not an easy situation to be accused of something that you know is completely fabricated.”

He accused Marc Hudson, group commander, of being “aggressive” and having “barked at me across the table” as the allegations were put to him.

Mr Hudson previously denied becoming aggressive and insisted he was “assertive”.

Mr Hobby said: “We have been hung, drawn and quartered from day one.”

This was, Ms Hodgetts insisted, “quite right”, given they were under investigation for gross misconduct.

Mr Hobby accepted that a “breach of dignity at work” is an example of gross misconduct.

The firefighter, who was ten weeks away from retirement, is also claiming age discrimination, as well as unfair dismissal after losing out on his pension.

The proceedings were adjourned until January when a decision will be made.