Admissibility of Evidence Obtained Through Secret Recording

p>In the case of Dogherty v Chairman and Governors of Amwell School, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) made a ruling on the use of a secret recording as evidence in an employment law case.

Mrs Dogherty worked as a teaching assistant for Amwell School. Accusations were made against her regarding her treatment of pupils at the school, and she was asked to attend a disciplinary meeting as a result. Following the meeting, and a further private appeal meeting which was not attended by Mrs Dogherty, she was dismissed for gross misconduct.

Mrs Dogherty made a claim for unfair dismissal, and, in the course of the case, it emerged that she had made a secret recording of both the "open" disciplinary meeting and the "private" appeal meeting. Her contract of employment did not expressly forbid covert recordings of meetings.

She won her case, but the school appealed on the grounds that the secret recording infringed the human rights of the school governors present at the meeting.

The EAT rejected the appeal, finding that the central issue, as least as far as the "open" meeting was concerned, was whether the content of the tape was relevant to Mrs...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT