Union chief compared to Lord of the Rings villain at tribunal

A WOMAN claimed she was sacked by a leading trade union because of a bizarre Lord of the Rings type conspiracy.

Gillian Martin, a 54-year-old mother-of-four, worked as an administrator for the GMB trade union for six years before she complained about her treatment to her boss and says she subsequently found herself the subject of a deliberate campaign to force her out.

The mother-of-four, from Darrington, Pontefract, has taken the GMB to a tribunal, alleging she was unfairly treated by senior figures who suspended and then sacked her, and that a man in her position would not have been dealt with in the same way.

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She yesterday told a tribunal in Leeds that sexual discrimination forced her out of her job and described the general secretary of the union, Paul Kenny, as an evil character from the famous trilogy.

In a witness statement, she said: ''I draw an analogy of my situation with the movie Lord of the Rings.

''For this purpose, I am suggesting that Paul Kenny is the Dark Lord Sauron, the eye at the top of the tower, seeing everything, missing nothing and directing everything.

"His GMB kingdom is the equivalent of Mordor, Lord Sauron's domain.

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''I see myself in all this as a female version of the hobbit Frodo Baggins carrying the ring, these precious claims of mine, to this tribunal of Mount Doom.

''I hope that by submitting my claims to the tribunal, in the same way as the ring was submitted to the molten lava of Mount Doom, that the eye of Lord Sauron will dissolve and justice will prevail."

Cross-examining her, Paul Gilroy QC, asked her: ''Is it correct that you believe you were sacked because of a conspiracy between a number of people?''

Mrs Martin replied: ''I think there's a conspiracy. I don't want revenge, I want justice.''

The tribunal continues.