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		</div><p>A transgender woman made redundant by The Times has lost an employment tribunal in which she claimed to have suffered discrimination and unfair dismissal at the newspaper.</p>
<p>Katherine O’Donnell worked as a night editor on the paper’s Scottish edition but was made redundant after the office in Scotland was closed and she turned down an offer to relocate to London.</p>
<p>After her redundancy, Ms O’Donnell sued her former employer for discrimination, harassment, victimisation and unfair dismissal, and claimed there was a “toxic environment for trans people” at the newspaper.</p>
<p>But after 19 days of hearings at an employment tribunal in Edinburgh, judge Jane Porter cleared The Times of all the allegations against it.</p>
<p>In her judgment, Ms Porter concluded Ms O’Donnell’s redundancy was not as a result of her status as a transgender woman – a protected status in law.</p>
<p>Ms O’Donnell had claimed there was a culture of discrimination at the Times, calling it a “boys club”, but the tribunal found there was “insufficient evidence of such a culture” and no evidence of dishonesty.</p>
<p>Following the judgment, a spokeswoman for The Times said: <em>“We are pleased this judgment dismisses all the claims made by the claimant and confirms that The Times took reasonable and appropriate decisions and did not show any anti-transgender bias towards its staff.”</em></p>
<p>Ms O’Donnell said she was disappointed at the decision and is considering an appeal.</p>
<p>Writing on Twitter, she said: <em>“I am disappointed with the judgement of the tribunal in my discrimination and unfair dismissal case against Times Newspapers Ltd.</em></p>
<p><em>“Working with my barrister, we are considering an appeal.</em></p>
<p><em>“To my witnesses and all who have supported me over the past two years, thank you.”</em></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">I am disappointed with the judgement of the tribunal in my discrimination and unfair dismissal case against Times Newspapers Ltd. Working with my barrister, we are considering an appeal. <br />To my witnesses and all who have supported me over the past two years, thank you.</p>
<p>&mdash; Katherine O&#39;Donnell (@kathy__odonnell) <a href="https://twitter.com/kathy__odonnell/status/1164787646536617984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 23, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>During the hearing, Ms O’Donnell said she overheard the Times’ then-deputy editor and deputy head of news refer to murdered transgender women in India as “a lifestyle choice” – a comment Ms O’Donnell said made her vomit involuntarily.</p>
<p>However, she did not report it until four-and-a-half years after it is claimed to have happened and the judge ruled this apparent incident “did not take place as alleged” by the claimant.</p>
<p>The judgment added: <em>“The tribunal found it incredible that an incident such as this would not have been the cause of a complaint, let alone a grievance, to any member of the management staff at the relevant time.”</em></p>
<p>Editor of the Times John Witherow was called to give evidence at the tribunal and, during cross-examination by barrister Robin White, was shown dozens of articles and columns which allegedly showed anti-trans bias.</p>
<p>Mr Witherow rejected the claims, describing the paper as “supportive” towards trans issues, and he added:<em> “The paper produces so much copy that to highlight a few articles can be misleading about what we do.”</em></p>
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