Mr Delroy Downer v London Borough of Lewisham — 2023

The claimant, a Black Caribbean Crime Enforcement Regulation Officer employed by the respondent, alleged direct race discrimination arising from the respondent's investigation and disciplinary process after an incident at Little Nan's Bar in December 2017. The tribunal accepted that the alleged acts formed a continuing course of conduct ending with the appeal outcome, so the complaints were in time.

The tribunal considered allegations that Ms Hooper targeted the claimant during the investigation, including by referring to alcohol, saying his account was not reliable, altering notes or evidence, preventing him from taking notes, ignoring supportive evidence, and recommending disciplinary action. It found that some alleged acts did not happen, that notes and evidence had not been tampered with, and that where treatment occurred the respondent had non-discriminatory explanations based on the evidence gathered and the differing accounts of the incident.

The tribunal also considered the decisions by Mr Wilkinson to find misconduct and issue a final written warning, and by Ms Buckton to uphold the misconduct finding while reducing the sanction to a written warning. It found no evidence that a white officer in the same circumstances would have been treated differently, and no evidence from which it was appropriate to infer conscious or unconscious race discrimination. The complaints were dismissed.