Sex-change Pc loses discrimination case
By Maurice Weaver
A FORMER male police constable who switched to a civilian role in the force after having a sex-change operation has lost a claim that her subsequent dismissal was sexual discrimination.
The Employment Tribunal panel has also rejected an assertion by Claire Ashton, 47, formerly Tony Ashton, that she was subjected to disability discrimination because she was suffering from a mental and physical condition linked to her gender confusion.
The force claimed that when Miss Ashton, of Uffington, Shropshire, was sacked from her post as a civilian communications officer in 1998 it was because of her inadequate performance in the job and nothing to do with her gender or sexual history.
Tony Ashton served in the Army and was a police constable with the West Mercia force for 10 years, before retiring on medical grounds in March 1997. A month later the newly-named Claire Ashton began work as a civilian police employee. For two years before the switch she received hormonal treatment, finally having a sex-change operation in April last year.
The hearing was told that Miss Ashton had embarrassed one police officer during a telephone conversation by asking him for a kiss. She also passed a note to another constable that read “something like, ’Where’s my snog or kiss?’” These incidents led to Miss Ashton being accused of breaching the force’s sexual harassment policy - something she denied. Her counsel, Declan O’Dempsey, attributed her troubles at work to the process of changing from a man to a woman.
23 February 1999: Pc who changed sex ’asked fellow officers for kiss’
22 December 1998: Judge backs sex changes on NHS
2 April 1997: Sex-change Pc returns in support role
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