Legal assistant sacked over Facebook jokes about Jimmy Savile and Muslim attacks

Leanne Livesey was sacked by law firm Slater and Gordon over ‘sickening’ Facebook posts
PA Wire

A legal assistant has been sacked over Facebook posts about Jimmy Savile’s sex crimes and attacks on Muslims, a tribunal heard.

Leanne Livesey had joked on her social media page about boiling water being thrown over Muslim children in a water fight, an employment tribunal in Manchester was told.

She was also accused of joking about prolific paedophile Savile’s sexual abuse of children, openly sharing racist views, and making remarks about class A drug use.

The posts came to light shortly after Ms Livesey had started work as a legal assistant at leading law firm Slater and Gordon in March last year.

The firm is representing victims of the Manchester Arena bombing, and had also previously represented victims of Jimmy Savile.

Senior Associate Victoria Higgins was horrified when she came across the Facebook messages, posted by Ms Livesey in 2019, and confronted her with them at a meeting to discuss her performance.

“(She) came across as very defensive and did not really say much”, the tribunal heard.

Ms Livesey also “did not give any reasonable explanation as to any of the posts”.

“She simply pointed out that she was not employed by the respondent when the posts were made.”

The hearing was told Ms Higgins found the social media material by accident, while already harbouring concerns about the newly-hired assistant’s general work-rate.

“She could not believe what she had seen. She was appalled at the nature of the posts, which in her assessment expressed racist views, joked about Jimmy Savile’s crimes against children, and joked about taking class A drugs,” the ruling states.

“She scrolled a little further back and this is when she saw a post from the claimant joking about throwing boiling water over Muslim children as part of a water fight.”

The solicitor was “genuinely shocked and in complete disbelief”, and feared for the law firm’s reputation as Black Lives Matters demonstrations swept the UK and she herself was working on the Manchester Arena bombing inquiry.

“She had a number of Muslim clients and one in particular whom she knew used Facebook a lot and it would have been her ‘worst nightmare’ if they had come across (Livesey’s) profile.

“The thought of it made her ‘feel physically sick’. The firm also has a number of Muslim employees in the department/firm and Ms Higgins has a Chinese colleague working in her team. Racism and discrimination of any kind sickens her.”

Ms Livesey was dismissed from her Manchester-based role by Slater and Gordon for failing to pass her three-month probation.

The tribunal heard she was already under scrutiny for her work-rate, after falling behind on routine tasks and forgetting to carry out assignments.

She brought a claim for unfair dismissal, arguing she had been sacked because she had recently become pregnant.

But the tribunal rejected her claim, saying it was “simply inconceivable in the face of the Facebook evidence that (she) was dismissed in any way at all because of or by reason of or in connection with her pregnancy”.

The tribunal came to a decision after a two-day hearing in June, with reasons for the decision now made public.

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