Rebecca Jenkins is suing her former employer, Essex Police, after she fell from a desk during an ‘office prank’ in which her phone was hidden in a ceiling cavity
A young detective is suing the police claiming a her career was wrecked when she fell off a desk due to an office prank.
Rebecca Jenkins says she was the butt of a ‘culture of pranking’ at Grays Police Station, in Essex, which ended in disaster.
Her lawyers told Central London County Court that her sergeant hid her phone in a ceiling void above her desk during an office joke.
She had clambered onto a desk to retrieve the phone after she heard it ringing above her head, but fell to the ground, damaging her left knee.
She has since suffered depression, pain and an ongoing ‘adjustment disorder’, for which she is claiming £500,000 damages, the court heard.
Her barrister, Andy Roy, said she had to give up her role as a ‘front line’ officer and the July 2012 incident ultimately wrecked her ‘dream’ career.
Ms Jenkins told the court ‘banter’ and ‘tricks’ were all part of a day’s work at the police station.
Although she tried to ‘give as good as she got’, she said she was targeted as the newest arrival.
‘There were always tricks being played by team members on each other,’ she told Judge Simon Freeland.
The pranks were mostly ‘good-humoured’ and harmless, and intended to ‘boost morale’ in a stressful workplace, she added.
Common japes included daubing ink on phones to smudge users’ faces, and writing ‘listen’ and ‘speak’ on mobiles.
Central London County Court heard Sergeant Alan Blakesley hid the phone for an office joke
Ms Jenkins, 33, accepts that Sergeant Alan Blakesley hid her phone in the ceiling to ‘raise the spirits of the team’.
Describing her as ‘quite a petite woman’, Mr Roy said she had to climb onto her desk to retrieve it.
‘She then went to climb down and, in so doing, she slipped and suffered a blow to her left knee,’ he added.
Although she tried to rebuild her career after the accident, she was dismissed from Essex Police in October last year, the court heard.
Mr Roy argued that, as the team’s most junior member, she was ‘under pressure’ to buy into the station’s ‘culture of practical joking’.
Rejecting claims that she was ‘foolhardy’ in climbing onto the desk, he added: ‘She was under pressure to conform’.
The incident happened at Grays Police Station in 2012 but the case has just reached court
Ms Jenkins, of Wickford, Essex, had been on the force for eight years but always wanted to be a detective, the court heard.
Although she now hopes to work as a teacher, Mr Roy added: ‘This had been her dream job since childhood’.
Lawyers representing Essex Chief Constable, Stephen Kavanagh, are fighting Ms Jenkins’ damages bid.
As well as disputing the extent of her injuries, they argue that what Sergeant Blakesley did was no more than a ‘good-hearted workplace prank’.
They also claim that he told her not to climb onto her desk and offered to retrieve the phone for her himself.
‘It was obviously foolhardy to climb on the desk to remove the telephone,’ said barrister, Laura Johnson.
The hearing continues.