A Bum Rap

I had a great laugh at this article from The Times the other day - the quote  from Mr Yapp about his employer using the deep pockets of the taxpayer to outspend and force him into submission - struck a real chord with me.

In fact it reminds me of the shameless way that certain employers in Scotland have behaved over equal pay - using huge sums of public money to 'defend the indefensible' in some cases as well, of course.

I note that the lawyer representing John Yapp was Jane McNeill QC - and that is the name of the excellent barrister who is now involved in the South Lanarkshire Council cases - on behalf of Action 4 Equality Scotland clients.

I must find out if this Jane McNeill QC is the same person.

Suspended John Yapp ‘Our man in Belize’ awarded £320,000 in damages

By Frances Gibb

A former diplomat has won £320,000 damages after the Foreign Office suspended him after he was wrongly accused of touching the bottom of a senior politician’s wife.

John Yapp was “our man in Belize” until he was suspended in 2008 after his superiors confronted him with the allegation made by an opposition politician from the Commonwealth state.

Last month, the High Court ruled that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was wrong to suspend him as High Commissioner with immediate effect, a decision that ultimately cost him his ambassadorial role.

Mr Yapp, 61, attacked the Foreign Office yesterday for “destroying his career” after the Government agreed to pay him £320,000. Mr Yapp accused the Foregin Office of trying to “outspend” him with taxpayers’ cash as he celebrated Mr Justice Cranston’s order that he should receive £150,000 towards his legal bills.

Speaking after the hearing, Mr Yapp said: “It has been a long battle to clear my name and I’m pleased that the judgment has gone in my favour.

“I would just say that it seems very unfair that one of the offices of state is using and continuing to use taxpayers’ money to outspend an individual. It is more than ironic that the Government is abolishing legal aid for civil actions and yet it is using taxpayers’ money to try and destroy me.

“To have my career at its pinnacle and my future prospects destroyed so wrongly and, it seems, on a whim, made me unwell and I have had to go through this for five years now.”

The court heard Mr Yapp was summoned before a Foreign Office official while on leave in June 2008 and hit with accusations that he had a “bullying” management style and “displayed inappropriate behaviour towards women at social functions”.

Claims of inappropriate behaviour arose from a Belize politician who said Mr Yapp touched his wife’s bottom at a social gathering. The accusation, branded “unfounded and scurrilous” by Mr Yapp’s QC, Jane McNeill, was rejected after a Foreign Office inquiry.

Mr Yapp, of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, said the Foreign Office’s failure to back him led to a mental breakdown. He argued that superiors failed to “hear his side of the story” before imposing the suspension, despite his 40 years’ service as a diplomat, including tenure as High Commissioner of the Seychelles.

Last month, Mr Justice Cranston ruled that the Foreign Office “acted in breach of contract and in breach of its duty of care in withdrawing Mr Yapp from his post without affording him fair treatment” and that the former diplomat was entitled to compensation.

Alan Payne, for the Foreign Office, said it planned to challenge that ruling.