Eton response to sacked teacher ruling

Eton College issued a statement in response to the employment tribunal ruling that it dismissed Prince Harry's former art teacher, Sarah Forsyth, unfairly:

The tribunal rejected Ms Forsyth's suggestions that her dismissal was due to sex discrimination or in any way relating to her unfounded allegations regarding Prince Harry...

It is also the college's case, still to be determined, that Ms Forsyth should receive no compensation as she would in any event have been summarily dismissed for gross misconduct for secretly tape-recording a conversation with a pupil.

The college has already made a number of changes to its employment procedures and will now look carefully at the tribunal's comments to see what further changes may be required.

The tribunal quite rightly saw through Ms Forsyth's publicity-seeking allegations regarding Prince Harry.

These were dismissed for what they always have been - unfounded and irrelevant.

Eton did not embark on this case lightly. We knew full well it would give rise to difficult publicity, given the existence of allegations whose real purpose can only have been to embarrass the college into settling.

The implications of these allegations were so serious, and Ms Forsyth's behaviour so unacceptable, that we concluded that we had no choice but to defend the good name of this college and to have these allegations dismissed. That has been achieved.