FIONA DAVIDSON A diabetes sufferer sacked from a school over allegations he viewed inappropriate sexual images on the website of a popular men's magazine at work was yesterday awarded £57,281 compensation and his job back.

FIONA DAVIDSON

A diabetes sufferer sacked from a school over allegations he viewed inappropriate sexual images on the website of a popular men's magazine at work was yesterday awarded £57,281 compensation and his job back.

Alastair Dickson, 53, who is dependent on insulin, was dismissed from his £31,000 a year post at Craigmount High School in Edinburgh after he was accused of accessing Maxim magazine's website where sexual images were on display in February last year.

City of Edinburgh Council was ordered to pay him the compensation and give him back his post as a community learning and development worker by August 7, after he took the local authority to an industrial tribunal on the grounds of disability discrimination and unfair dismissal.

Mr Dickson was accused of logging on to Maxim early in the morning and of viewing sexual images on a screen in the computer suite later that same day. However, an investigation revealed nobody was logged into computers in the suite at the relevant time.

Mr Dickson denied viewing pornography, said he did not know the Maxim site and could not remember accessing it.

At his disciplinary hearing, Mr Dickson's doctor said his behaviour could have been caused by hypoglycaemia, when blood sugar drops to a level that could lead to a diabetic coma without insulin. Symptoms included memory loss, atypical and automatic behaviour.

Mr Dickson, of Brunstane Bank, Edinburgh, had advised John Fraser, neighbourhood manager for West Edinburgh, that he had been taking the wrong strength of insulin at the time and this could have contributed to the likelihood of him being hypoglycaemic.

Mr Fraser did not accept his explanations and believed he was lying.

However, the tribunal said no reasonable employer would have reached that conclusion.