Female officer wins £820k after harassment
A SENIOR female firearms officer has won more than £820,000 in a sex discrimination and harassment case after being stripped to her underwear in a police training course.
Det Insp Rebecca Kalam told of a “toxic and discriminatory” culture in the unit in which she was one of only seven women among 250 men.
In one exercise session a trainer pushed her neck down with his foot and told her: “Just because you have t**s does not mean you cannot do a press-up.”
And in a training scenario she had her clothes cut off and was stripped down to her underwear so fellow officers could treat an imagined bullet hole on the top of her left breast.
This left her feeling “extremely uncomfortable”, the tribunal heard.
She was also made to pose for a photoshoot when five months pregnant, and told she would not pass her training course if she did not agree to be the “poster girl” for the West Midlands Police firearms unit.
Women in the unit had to use body armour and firearms kit designed for men, and she was told to wear a compression bra to fit into it.
She also felt “extremely uncomfortable” when colleagues drew male genitalia on notice boards at the station.
DI Kalam, 40, joined the unit in 2012 but has been medically retired as a result of her ordeal.
She successfully sued West Midlands Police at an employment tribunal after the force was found liable for her claims of sex discrimination and harassment.
She had already been awarded £33,000 in damages including £30,000 for injury to feelings. Now, in a judgment published yesterday, she has been awarded an additional £787,720, bringing her total compensation to £820,720. Employment Judge Christopher Camp told the tribunal in Birmingham the “excellent police officer” would have had a good chance of reaching the rank of Superintendent.
But her ordeal caused her such “significant psychiatric injury” that she was left unable to work.