The Claimant faced allegations of an incident of inappropriate sexual behaviour after work, a further incident of intimidating and threatening behaviour to a work colleague, and bringing the Respondent into disrepute. Following an investigation into the incidents, the Claimant was dismissed, and he brought claims in the ET of unfair and wrongful dismissal and sex and age discrimination. The ET rejected the unfair and wrongful dismissal claims by a majority and the discrimination claims unanimously. The Claimant appealed on a number of grounds, including that the majority of the ET erred in holding that the dismissal was still fair, notwithstanding that the decision maker was not informed that the complainant had withdrawn her allegation of sexual assault to the police.

The EAT held that the failure to inform the decision maker of the change in circumstances affected the reasonableness of the decision to dismiss for the reason found, and hence its fairness. Accordingly, the EAT allowed the appeal on this ground only and substituted a decision that the dismissal was, on this account, unfair. The matter would be remitted to the same ET to consider whether it now thinks that the decision maker might have made a different decision and, if so, the impact on its remedy decision.