Stonewall’s witness ‘needed to bring dog and mother’ to tribunal

STONEWALL’S witness has interrupted a tribunal hearing so that their dog and mother could accompany them while giving evidence.

The tribunal was brought by Allison Bailey, a barrister, who is suing the LGBT charity as well as Garden Court Chambers, her workplace, amid claims that she lost work and income following a row over Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme and its assertion that “trans women are women”.

Ms Bailey has also accused the charity’s barrister of “bullying” and “laughing” at her during the hearings, and has claimed that Garden Court Chambers tried to “crush her spirit” by withholding work from her.

Yesterday, the online hearing was forced to break when Kirrin Medcalf, the head of trans inclusion at Stonewall, failed to warn the court that their dog and mother would be in the room.

The incident happened just after Medcalf, who is gender non-binary, was sworn in to give evidence before Employment Judge Sarah Goodman.

Ijeoma Omambala QC, Stonewall’s barrister, told the tribunal that the witness should have “periodic breaks” and that they had a “support person” with them while giving evidence.

However, Ben Cooper QC, representing Ms Bailey, said he was unaware of the witness having “extra needs” and said it was “not proper” for such a lastminute change.

Judge Goodman said that if there was another person in the room accompanying the witness, then they would also need to be “in shot [of the video-link]”.

Ms Omambala told the hearing that those in the room included Medcalf ’s mother, support person and dog.

Judge Goodman said she was “disappointed” this arrangement was not discussed ahead of the hearing and called a break so that their room could be rearranged. The hearing resumed with all three people and the animal in shot.

The hearing continues.