In person For the v Respondent — 2020

Reverend J G Hargreaves worked as a Supported Housing Night Concierge at Beacon House, where Ms E Akano worked as a day-shift Support Assistant. After a conversation on 14 January 2019 about homosexuality and religious belief, the tribunal found that Ms Akano later conducted internet searches about the claimant and became upset by what she saw concerning his religious views. The tribunal accepted the claimant's evidence that Ms Akano said to him on 1 February 2019, 'you're one of those black men who like white women', and rejected her account of the earlier conversation about a resident and a lesbian relationship.

On the religion-related harassment claim, the tribunal found that Ms Akano ignored the claimant on 1, 2 and 4 February, 24 and 26 April, and 7 May 2019, and that this conduct was unwanted, related to the claimant's religious belief, and had the effect of creating a hostile environment. It also found that Mr Deakin's questioning of the claimant during the grievance process about his social media posts and the Scottish Christian Party was unwanted and related to religious belief. The tribunal rejected the allegations that Mr Deakin's failure to interview witnesses and the grievance outcome were discriminatory or harassing, and it held that Ms Ives's appeal letter giving management guidance was reasonable and did not amount to castigation.

The tribunal upheld the direct discrimination claim based on religion only in relation to the questioning about the claimant's online material and Scottish Christian Party involvement. It held that the claimant's race discrimination claim succeeded because the remark about being 'one of those black men who like white women' was made because of race. The victimisation claim failed because, although the grievance process contained protected acts, the tribunal found that the alleged detriments were not because of those acts. The respondent relied on section 109(4) of the Equality Act 2010, but the tribunal held that the evidence before it was not sufficient to establish that defence in relation to the discrimination it had found.