Simon Harper, a teacher from Brighton, worked part-time on Fridays teaching at the Brighton and Hove Albion academy for eight years up to 2022.
In an employment tribunal, held in Southampton on January 18 and 19 this year, employment Judge Dawson found that Mr Harper had been unfairly dismissed.
It heard that, in September 2022, Mr Harper’s line manager Nathan Marshall claimed that Mr Harper had greeted him on the morning of Friday the 30th using the N-word.
The tribunal acknowledged that the term “n****r” is offensive and “one which inevitably causes distress to people”.
On October 3, Mr Marshall documented this in an email. He wrote: “I came into the education area on Friday morning as I entered I could see Simon Harper in the open plan education area. As I approached my office door I said good morning.
“Simon responded ‘good morning’ and I heard a word ending in ‘ger’’.
“In shock and disbelief and from what I know of Simon’s character I thought I misheard or was mistaken. I proceeded into my office.”
Later in the morning a scholar at the academy came into Mr Marshall’s and said that they had heard something ending in “ger”.
Mr Harper denied using that term and apologised if that is what Mr Marshall thought he had said.
The tribunal was told that had Mr Harper used that term, it would have been out of character.
Mr Harper is qualified as a social worker as well as a teacher.
He was the person to introduce anti-racism education to the club’s academy when he initiated anti-racism workshops there.
Judge Dawson told the tribunal: “Everyone accepts that, had the claimant used that term, it would have been out of character for him and there had been no similar incidents or concerns during his period of employment.”
Mr Harper was suspended and later dismissed by Brighton and Hove Albion’s chief operating officer Paul Mullen for gross misconduct.
The judge ruled that the investigation, carried out by staff including Chris Crowe, operations manager at the academy, was “not as robust as it should have been”.
He said: “I am troubled by the facts that there was no analysis of the evidence by Mr Crowe in reaching his conclusions in his investigation report, those notes were not sent to the claimant at any time and he laughed during the appeal process.”
The judge added: “To infer that somebody is guilty because they have not reacted in the same way that the disciplinary officer would have done is, I regret to say, facile.
“Those deciding whether to end someone’s career with an employer should be trained properly and should not be drawing such simplistic conclusions.”
The tribunal ruled that Mr Harper’s dismissal was unfair and that the club breached its contract when it dismissed him without notice.
Mr Harper is due to be compensated at a remedy hearing.
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