Gay BBC Sports pundit wins sex harassment claim against her previous employer – Daily Mail
A gay BBC Sport pundit has won a sex harassment claim after male colleagues at a previous job said she was only a lesbian because she had ‘never had a real man’.
Kirsty Ditchfield, a footballer, was told she was a member of the ‘inferior sex’ when she was the only woman working in a team of men at Network Rail.
Miss Ditchfield, who now commentates on football matches for BBC Radio Manchester, told an employment tribunal that her colleagues would ask her to ‘get your t*** out’ while at work and for advice on how to have sex with a woman.
She is now in line for compensation after a panel ruled she had been discriminated against.
The hearing was told Miss Ditchfield was the only female working in the team of labourers at the firm’s depot in Guide Bridge, Greater Manchester.
She started working there in September 2015 but only had access to the female toilet during the day and initially had to share the male changing facility for the first three weeks of her employment.
The tribunal heard that, in July or August 2017, team leader Edward Helps made a comment that Miss Ditchfield was ‘not bad for the inferior sex’.
The tribunal noted that section manager Joseph Spiteri-Braysford laughed off the comment, leaving Miss Ditchfield with ‘no confidence that he would take any allegations of discrimination seriously’.
Footballer Kirsty Ditchfield had been working at Network Rail at the time of the harassment
Miss Ditchfield said former colleagues would ask her to ‘get your t*** out’ while at work
She told the hearing that ‘because she is gay, she was treated like a man in relation to sexual innuendo’.
However, she didn’t report the comments initially because ‘since she was new and not being taken seriously, she felt it best to just get on with it and she had to work with the lads every day and did not want to grass’.
She said: “Upon starting I was subject to a lot of discrimination with [Mr Helps] saying I am not bad for the inferior sex whilst with management, to which nothing was said it seemed to just be brushed off.
“Every day working there something would be said to me either ‘get your tits out’ or ‘you’ve never had a real man that’s why you’re a lesbian’.
“Being asked how I do it (sex with a woman), am I good, can I teach them a few things.
“The comments were most days.”
Miss Ditchfield was told by staff ‘you’ve never had a real man that’s why you’re a lesbian’
She is now a football match commentator for BBC Radio Manchester reporting on matches
In September 2018 Miss Ditchfield was involved in a road traffic accident where the vehicle she was driving hit a stationary vehicle. She was later dismissed in January 2019 for not reporting this.
She then complained to the employment tribunal of direct sex discrimination in the provision of toilet and changing facilities and of harassment related to sex and sexual orientation and of a sexual nature in relation to comments made to her by male colleagues.
Upholding her claims, the tribunal judgement found: “It had the purpose or effect of violating [her] dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for her and it was reasonable for [her] to form that view.”
The panel ruled that the harassing comments did ‘form part of a continuing act of discrimination’ against her.
Her compensation is set to be decided at a later hearing.