Irish BBC radio presenter loses claim against broadcaster after his colleague branded him a leprechaun following Gaelic social media post
- David Hedges claimed he was subjected to racist abuse at BBC Radio Solent
- Image of Irish landscape and Gaelic caption caused editor to call him leprechaun
An Irish radio host has unsuccessfully tried to sue the BBC after his colleague branded him a leprechaun after he posted a saying in Gaelic.
David Hedges claimed he had been subjected to racist abuse at BBC Radio Solent in Southampton after an assistant editor there commented the in his eyes 'racist' message on a social media post Hedges created three years ago.
He sued the BBC and said at the resulting employment tribunal that he had posted a picture of an Irish landscape, captioned with a saying in Gaelic.
Hedges' colleague reportedly asked him: 'Is that the call of a leprechaun?' - a mystical figure often pictured with a cocked hat, a leather apron and a crock of gold -, which upset the radio host.
However, Hodges only filed an official complaint after 18 months had passed, which was rejected.
He sued the BBC and said at the resulting employment tribunal that he had posted a picture of an Irish landscape, captioned with a saying in Gaelic. Hedges' colleague reportedly asked him: 'Is that the call of a leprechaun?' - a mystical figure often pictured with a cocked hat, a leather apron and a crock of gold -, which upset the radio host
Afterwards he tried to sue the BBC for racial harassment, which a judge has now dismissed due to him waiting so long before filing an official complaint.
The judge at the tribunal, Holly Stout, said even without the late complaint the case was weak due to the colleague's comment being light-hearted.
The incident occurred in 2020 while Hedges was on leave and he allegedly found the comment particularly distressing due to his colleague's previous offensive comments, the Times reports.
It is said the BBC bosses didn't regard the leprechaun question as harassment because Hedges took it as a joke at first.
The judge said at the trial that the context and nature of the tweet seem to point toward's the BBC's defence that Hedges 'could not have reasonably have regarded the tweet as meeting the harassment treshold'.
While Hedges already resigned from his post at BBC Radio Solent last year, he only sued the BBC in January this year - despite employment law stating that claims must be brought within three months of an incident.
He was allowed to go forward because the tribunal accepted that he received the wrong advice from his lawyers regarding this time limit.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12276971/Irish-BBC-radio-presenter-loses-claim-against-broadcaster-colleague-branded-leprechaun.html
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