A FEMALE firearms office experienced "horrific" workplace culture in an armed policing unit within Police Scotland, an employment tribunal has found.

It accepted evidence of an “absolute boys’ club” in the armed response vehicles unit in the east of Scotland after former officer Rhona Malone raised the tribunal against the force.

She alleged sex discrimination and victimisation. Her victimisation claims succeeded but the discrimination claim was dismissed.

Malone’s solicitor, Margaret Gribbon, said: “The employment tribunal upheld my client’s claims that Police Scotland victimised her over a lengthy period after she complained about an inspector’s overtly sexist email.

"The employment tribunal’s findings lay bare the misogynistic attitudes and culture within armed policing and the hostile treatment police officers face when they try to call it out.”

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Malone claimed Police Scotland had offered her a payout if she signed a non-disclosure agreement. She said she was “absolutely delighted at finally obtaining justice”.

She told The Sun: “I didn’t want to leave my job, there was no reason for this, it was completely unnecessary.

“I didn’t need to go to court for any of this, but they made it so difficult. They put me and my family through absolute hell and torture, for years I was in limbo.

“As a police officer I stood up for people’s rights, I expected the same in return.”

The tribunal also found that Malone was an "entirely credible and reliable witness", but the evidence of her former superior, Insp Keith Warhurst, was "contradictory, confusing and ultimately incredible".

He copied Malone in on an email in January 2018 saying two female firearms officers should not be deployed together when there were sufficient male staff on duty, referring to “the obvious differences in physical capacity” and suggesting this made “more sense from a search, balance of testosterone perspective”.

But the tribunal found that Warhurst’s instruction was not carried out, with staff told it did not represent the views of senior management and, as a result of this it dismissed Malone’s direct discrimination claim.

Police Scotland apologised to Malone and said it would address the issues raised in the judgement "as a matter of urgency".

In its judgement, the tribunal accepted evidence that there was an "absolute boys' club culture" within the ARV which was "horrific". It also found:

  • Sgt Rachel Coates, a former colleague of Malone, was told by the chief firearms instructor that women should not become AFOs "because they menstruated and that affected their temperament".
  • When Sgt Coates asked if women AFOs could wear trousers and a top, rather than a one-piece, so it would be easier to go to the toilet, the chief firearms instructor swore at her.
  • Insp Warhurst posted images of topless women to a WhatsApp group of male sergeants within the Fettes Team 1. A colleague messaged him and told him it was inappropriate.
  • Another former colleague of Malone overheard Insp Warhust calling one of the female Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) agents "a wee lassie".
  • Sgt Coates and another colleague, Constable Zara Taylor, left the ARV division as they were "not confident that the sexist culture...was going to change and felt their sex was always going to be a barrier to promotion".

Malone told the Guardian she has now been approached by many other female officers who had faced similar experiences. “The unconscious bias in Police Scotland is so deep that they don’t even realise. Misogynist banter is nurtured and no one steps in to say this is wrong. So that poisonous culture is just going to grow.”

She said Police Scotland are "promoting the wrong people, and those who speak up are made to look like they are the problem".

Police Scotland has been approached for comment.