Spurned health boss called his married HR chief a ‘whore’
AN NHS chief sexually harassed a married human resources boss, calling her a “whore”, after she refused to sleep with him, a tribunal heard.
Helen Marks was friends with Alan Baines for years but rejected his repeated sexual advances.
Mr Baines, then chairman of Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, told Mrs Marks before her wedding that he loved her, the tribunal heard. He later invited her to a Michelin-starred restaurant and to stay overnight.
Mr Baines, described as bullying and manipulative, turned against the HR manager after she indicated her discomfort at his advances.
Mrs Marks was suspended from her job and escorted from the building. The employment tribunal ruled she was unfairly dismissed.
Monitor, the health watchdog, is now investigating the trust. Prof Steve Trenchard, its chief executive, has been suspended.
The tribunal found that he had protected Mr Baines, who was allowed to retire with his “good name” intact.
Mr Baines began having lunch meetings with Mrs Marks in 2010 to discuss work at the mental health trust, based in Derby.
They became confidantes and “talked not only about work matters but also their personal lives”, the tribunal report stated.
In March 2012 he congratulated her on her forthcoming wedding, hugged her and said he loved her. Mrs Marks said she was “surprised” by his words but took them to be good wishes.
Later that year she was “delighted” when a member of staff failed to gain a promotion, the tribunal heard. Mr Baines, who was on the appointments panel, entered her office and kissed her, believing “he had obtained for her the result she desired and wished to seek some reward”. She texted Mr Baines her “discomfort” about his advances in an attempt to “set some parameters to their relationship”.
Consequently, contact between them “reduced substantially”, but in March 2013 Mr Baines became jealous when a senior trust member bought Mrs Marks a glass of prosecco at a dinner, the tribunal heard.
He sent her “a barrage of nasty texts”, calling her a “whore” and accusing her of sleeping with the man.
Mrs Marks felt “the situation was becoming increasingly difficult”, not least because she had not told her husband about the relationship.
She wanted to be friends with Mr Baines but rejected his invitation to Le Gavroche in Mayfair because she felt the overnight stay would be “a further opportunity to put pressure on her” to sleep with him.
He also sent texts “pushing her to have an intimate relationship”.
Mr Baines was later “clearly delighted” when he received a complaint about Mrs Marks from a member of staff, the tribunal heard. He decided the trust should sack her for alleged bullying.
Mrs Marks said after the hearing in June: “I hope that the trust will learn from its mistakes and make appropriate changes to its policies and procedures so that, in future, its staff are not subjected to similar behaviour.”
A trust spokesman said: “We are committed to improving our processes and learning from the outcomes of this case.”