Melanie Newman said she wanted to challenge what was said at the event but feared being ‘labelled part of the cult’.
A gender-critical Metropolitan Police detective who said she felt like “Daniel in the lion’s den” at an internal trans rights event has lost her employment tribunal case against the force.
Detective Constable Melanie Newman claimed to have suffered “isolation and dread” after a talk by a trans rights activist who said her “haters” had “twisted and warped” views.
DC Newman said she wanted to challenge what was said but feared being “labelled part of the cult”.
After complaining about the event, she began legal action against the force, claiming to have suffered discrimination and harassment because of her beliefs.
But the tribunal dismissed her claims, ruling that the Met was entitled to host the event.
After winning the case, the Met said it demonstrated the “difficulty organisations face in striking the balance” when it comes to trans rights issues.
A South London employment tribunal heard the “Trans Day of Visibility” event was organised for March 2023, and that all staff were invited to join.
It took place in the force’s headquarters at New Scotland Yard, with some attendees – including DC Newman – joining remotely.
The former journalist joined the force in March 2022 and had been working for the Croydon criminal investigations department since January 2023.
DC Newman, who believes biological sex is “immutable”, told the tribunal that guest speaker Eva Echo “portrayed an extreme, one-sided and conspiratorial view of a complex debate”.
The activist, who sits on the Crown Prosecution Service’s hate crime panel, has accused author JK Rowling of being on a crusade to “erase trans people”, the tribunal was told.
In her witness statement to the tribunal, DC Newman said: “Eva Echo said that her political opponents on this issue were members of a cult, were ‘obsessed’ with ‘twisted, warped’ views, that their concerns were a ‘manufactured moral panic’ and that trans people were ‘an easy target for their hate’.”
DC Newman also told the tribunal that the activist said officers should contact their MPs and “if you’re unfortunate enough to have a Tory as an MP you can hound them”.
She added: “At various points during Eva Echo’s talk I wanted to challenge what was said but was scared that I would then be labelled part of the ‘cult’ and that there would be repercussions.”
Attendees “hissed” when a speaker mentioned Posie Parker, a prominent gender-critical activist, the tribunal heard.
DC Newman continued: “I felt like an incognito Daniel in the lion’s den.
“I was upset, however my overwhelming feeling was of isolation and dread at the knowledge that it was down to me — a trainee detective on probation, with no standing or support network in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) — to do something about what had happened.
“Out of 54,000 people in the MPS I felt there was no-one else I could speak to about this.”
After DC Newman’s complaints, the Met carried out a review of the event and established a “gender critical network” for its staff.
The harassment claim was dismissed because the tribunal found the event’s purpose was not to “harass those with gender critical beliefs”.
Employment Judge Christina Morton added: “We were unable to find in this contemporaneous documentation any evidence of discrimination towards gender critical beliefs operating on the minds of any of those who made these decisions.”
After the ruling, a Met spokesperson said: “The Met works with a range of community representatives who are expected to meet our standards of conduct and mutual respect.
“As an organisation we must balance a range of different views, including those from all sides of this debate which are protected in law.
“This case demonstrates how deeply polarising these issues are and highlights the difficulty organisations face in striking that balance.”
