‘All-over tan on holiday’ letter helps UK woman councillor win harassment case

LONDON - A woman councillor has won an harassment case against a colleague after he sent her a letter asking if she had achieved an ‘all-over tan’ on holiday.

The Daily Mail quoted Terri Beer, 52, as saying that the comment by committee member Malcolm Haggart, 53, had ’sexual connotations’ that ‘to me is deemed as harassment’.

Beer, a Conservative councillor for the Plymouth City Council in Devon, received the letter shortly after she returned from a break in Spain.

Haggart, who was serving on the council’s standards committee at the time, wrote that although it seemed ‘impertinent’ to ask, he hoped she’d managed to get an ‘all over tan’.e was later suspended over the incident and Beer then sued him - not for the content of the letter but for subsequent harassment.

She discovered Haggart had hired a private detective to investigate her movements, which he claimed he had a legal right to do because she had made complaints about him.

But she sued him for harassment and also sought an injunction to prevent him contacting her by letter or making defamatory comments.

During a civil hearing at Plymouth County Court District, Judge Andrew Walker found in Beer’s favour, striking out Haggart’s counter-claim.

It means he must now pay out damages and costs to the councillor, the scale of which will be assessed at a hearing scheduled for next month. (ANI)