Remark ‘indelicate but not scathing’
Jan 5 2008 by Jule Wilson, The Journal
THE lawyer accused of causing a pregnant employee to give birth prematurely has admitted that saying she would get fat was “indelicate”.
Lesley Crinson, 53, a partner with Newcastle employment law specialist Short Richardson and Forth accepted at an employment tribunal on Thursday that on hearing of the pregnancy of assistant solicitor Naomi Mainwaring, 26, she said she would get fat and get piles.
And yesterday Mrs Crinson told the panel she felt the comment in November 2006, although meant to be pleasant, had been “unfortunate”.
She said: “I responded as I have said, by putting my hands to my mouth in surprise, then I made an unfortunate remark, but I wasn’t dismayed by the news. I believe it has been described as indelicate.”
The mother of two denied she had delivered the comment in a manner designed to upset Mrs Mainwaring, who claims sex discrimination.
She said: “I didn’t look her up and down and I felt neither scathing nor disapproving.” Mrs Crinson also denied making scathing comments about Mrs Mainwaring’s size, the clothes she wore and whether she was working hard enough to justify her £30,000-a-year salary.
She told the tribunal she had never passed any remarks about having done things properly “in her day”, by having her own children before embarking on her career in law.
But she said: “That is a correct description of what I did. It is a fact that I had my children first and then qualified as a lawyer.
“But it does not reflect how I felt about what other people did. I could never have compared Naomi Mainwaring’s circumstance to my own because I knew when I appointed her that she had qualified as a solicitor before she had had any children.”
The tribunal is due to continue next month.
Page 2: Partner ‘gobsmacked’ by offer
