Racist, homophobic colleagues 'violated Met officer's dignity'

 
Harassed: Kevin Maxwell told the tribunal that he had suffered from depression after being taunted by fellow officers
10 April 2012

A gay black Metropolitan police officer suffered a mental breakdown after colleagues bullied him and then attempted publicly to "out" his sexuality in a national newspaper.

Kevin Maxwell, a counter-terrorism officer who worked at Heathrow, was subjected to direct discrimination, harassment and victimisation over his race and sexual orientation, an employment tribunal ruled.

It found yesterday that a Met officer deliberately leaked a "distorted account" of the details of his claim to The Sun.

Reading employment tribunal ruled that Detective Constable Maxwell's dignity had been "violated" by demeaning racist and homophobic comments, and criticised Scotland Yard for failing to train officers to deal properly with ethnic minorities.

Mr Maxwell, 33, from Liverpool but living in Islington, said that he had had the illness "severe reactive depression due to my experiences of racism & homophobia as a public servant" diagnosed in 2009. Still a serving officer, he describes himself as a "filmmaker, writer & performer; social justice & equality ambassador" on his website and plans to write a memoir about his "three-year fight for justice".

On his website, he says: "In July 2010 I learned that The Sun newspaper unlawfully possessed my private data, and was going to publish this along with a negative story about me because I had raised discrimination within the workplace.

"The deliberate leak by my employer tried to discredit me and stop my complaints from being heard, threatening to make public my sexuality, mental illness and sensitive job. This was a turning point in my life with me never allowing myself to be bullied or blackmailed again."

The Sun agreed not to run the story after a journalist was told by the Met's human resources director that an article would cause him "distress".

Detective Constable Maxwell, who worked within the Specialist Operations (SO15) Counter Terrorism Command Special Branch at Terminal 5, told the hearing of a string of incidents of homophobic and racist abuse starting in March 2009.

Judge Byrne ruled that the comments and actions of colleagues had the effect of "violating [his] dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment".
Scotland Yard said that it was disappointed at the tribunal's findings and would hold an internal investigation.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT