‘Sex pest’ spymaster accused of bombarding woman agent with emails and texts in campaign of harassment

By
Sam Greenhill

Last updated at 11:41 PM on 23rd January 2012

A British secret agent dressed as a pirate for her intelligence agency’s staff Christmas party because she was unhappy about wearing a cowgirl costume, a tribunal heard yesterday.

The officer explained her what-to-wear dilemma came up because the fancy dress party was also being attended by her spymaster – who, she claims, was pestering her for sex.

She tried to fend off the married intelligence chief’s nine-month campaign by suggesting he have an affair with another woman spy, Central London Employment Tribunal was told.

Awkward situation: The spy boss would sit too close to the agent, making her feel uncomfortable, she said

Awkward situation: The spy boss would sit too close to the agent, making her feel uncomfortable, she said

The agent, known as Miss D, was giving
evidence from behind a screen. A court order prevents her intelligence
agency from being identified for reasons of national security.

Yesterday, on the second day of her sexual harassment case, Miss D made further claims of lurid messages sent by her boss.

The pirate versus cowgirl question was
revealed when the tribunal heard of a text exchange between Miss D and
her boss referring to the staff Christmas party.

She wrote about ‘not being brave
enough for a cowgirl costume’, and said yesterday: ‘I didn’t like that
you either had to go as a pirate or a cowgirl, so I ended up going as a
pirate.’

No further details were given of the
party, at which the cream of Britain’s intelligence establishment was
apparently divided into cutlass-wielding pirates and cowgirls.

The tribunal has heard that Miss D’s
boss, Mr F, complained that ‘sex was not happening much’ with his wife,
and demanded an affair with his colleague.

He allegedly twirled her hair and
stroked her leg at their spy headquarters, but threatened to ‘wipe the
floor’ with her if she ever complained of sexual harassment.

At one point Miss D even suggested he
should have an illicit affair with another member of staff to ‘get him
off my back’, she said.

'Harassment': Mr F made comments of a sexual nature to Miss D, including asking her if she had undressed during the night, she told Central London Employment Tribunal Centre, pictured

‘Harassment’: Mr F made comments of a sexual nature to Miss D, including asking her if she had undressed during the night, she told Central London Employment Tribunal Centre, pictured

She tried the tactic so she could ‘get
on with my job’, and sent him a text reading: ‘If you make up your mind
to stray, I still think you and SW would be good together.’

Another
time, the manager texted Miss D to say he was going to take a ‘sickie’
off work and then texted her asking: ‘You didn’t get undressed during
the night, did you?’ and told her to ‘give me a shout’ if she got bored.

The alleged sexual harassment became
so much that she eventually asked the HR department at the intelligence
agency: ‘When the **** is he ever going to realise it isn’t going to
happen?’

Miss D told the tribunal of a time when Mr F had been to the
doctors about his psoriasis skin condition. After emailing him to say
she hoped the appointment had gone well, he replied: ‘Is chlamydia
serious?’

She denied she saw it as a joke,
saying: ‘I thought, why is he sending something of a sexual nature
again? Why do it? I thought, oh my God, here we go again.’

Miss D said: ‘I was trying to get on with my manager.

‘He sent me something about chlamydia
which I didn’t think was ideal considering he was sexually harassing me.
I was trying to keep the situation amicable.’

Adam Tolley, representing the spy
agency, put it to Miss D that she thought Mr F was an ‘attractive,
intelligent, funny and kind’ man and that ‘you were often
tactile…putting your hand on his. You sat close to him’.

She replied: ‘Only because he put his
chair so close to mine. He was bang up against me and used to say, “You
don’t like me being too close to you, do you?”.

‘I said, “No, I don’t”, but he continued.’

Referring to her decision to make a
formal complaint, she said: ‘I knew that nothing I could ever have done
would have stopped him. He was a sexual harasser.’

But the tribunal was told her
employers had concerns about how she was managing her workload towards
the end of 2010 after being handed a new role.

Mr Tolley suggested to her: ‘The true
position was that you realised you were in difficulty [with work] and
you were preparing your own version of events.’ She denied this.

The hearing continues.

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