£400,000 for school head accused of Islamophobia

Erica Connor, 57, left the New Monument primary school in Woking, Surrey, because of stress after she was accused of Islamophobia.

A deputy High Court judge ruled in March last year that Surrey County Council had failed in its duty to protect her and to intervene when the actions of the governors created problems. He awarded her 407,700 damages.

The council had appealed against the ruling, claiming it was not liable in law and had not acted negligently in dealing with the problem.

Lord Justice Laws, giving a ruling yesterday, said Mrs Connor, who was promoted to head in 1998, had suffered psychiatric damage and had to stop work in 2005 and retired a year later on ill-health grounds.

The school had a 80-85 per cent Muslim intake, and problems began in 2003 when Paul Martin, a Muslim convert, was elected a parent governor and Mumtaz Saleem was appointed as a local education authority governor.

Mr Martin started making allegations about anti-Muslim comments by members of staff which led to an investigation by Mrs Connor.

She found that all the staff denied the allegations which she said had demoralised them.

An official review also found no evidence of deliberate racism or religious bias but said the governing body had become dysfunctional.

The High Court had been told Mr Martin tried to stir up disaffection in the community against the school and Mr Saleem was verbally abusive in school meetings.