{"id":291647,"date":"2025-07-25T22:01:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T22:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/291647\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T22:01:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T22:01:10","slug":"trans-tribunal-phone-notes-were-not-checked-in-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/291647\/","title":{"rendered":"Trans tribunal phone notes were not checked in person"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phone records in a tribunal involving a row between a nurse and a trans doctor were not examined in person or forensically.<\/p>\n

Peter Donaldson, an information security manager for NHS Fife, instead joined a Teams call with Dr Beth Upton in May this year to assist in downloading notes from a mobile phone.<\/p>\n

The notes related to encounters the doctor had with Sandie Peggie, a nurse at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.<\/p>\n

Mr Donaldson told the tribunal that “time was limited” but that it would have been “more beneficial” to have carried out the exercise in person. <\/p>\n

Ms Peggie and Dr Upton had a row on 24 December 2023<\/a> in the women’s changing rooms, regarding whether the doctor should be allowed in there.<\/p>\n

The nurse was then suspended after Dr Upton made an allegation of bullying and harassment and cited concerns about “patient care”.<\/p>\n

Ms Peggie has since lodged a claim against NHS Fife and Dr Upton, citing the Equality Act 2010.<\/p>\n

The tribunal previously heard Dr Upton had recorded details of alleged incidents<\/a> involving Ms Peggie prior to Christmas Eve in written notes on a phone.<\/p>\n

When asked if the “most reliable” way to ensure the phone information was accurate would have been to carry out a forensic examination, Mr Donaldson agreed.<\/p>\n

He also agreed that an in-person meeting would have been better than a Teams call. <\/p>\n

Mr Donaldson said he could not offer a technical explanation for why the notes, including one entitled Weird Incident, showed a creation date of October 2023 but listed an edited date of August 2023.<\/p>\n

The witness told the tribunal “he didn’t believe for a minute that [Dr Upton] was trying to lead us up to the garden path” with evidence.<\/p>\n

It was later stated by Dr Upton’s legal team that other notes on the phone unrelated to Ms Peggie – including a shopping list – had the same issue with dates.<\/p>\n

Another IT expert told the tribunal it “just isn’t possible” to edit a mobile phone note prior to the date it is created.<\/p>\n

IT consultant James Borwick said only a “catastrophic event” at Google would have resulted in the phone saying a note had been edited before being created.<\/p>\n

Mr Borwick was hired by Ms Peggie’s legal team to examine the phone records but denied he had been instructed to undermine Dr Upton.<\/p>\n

Asked to explain screenshots highlighting the disparity between dates Mr Borwick said the “version history” of the phone notes appeared to have been superimposed.<\/p>\n

He added that he had attempted to recreate the same scenario with a phone and editing dates before creating them, but without success.<\/p>\n

He told the panel “it’s just not possible”. <\/p>\n

The tribunal heard Dr Upton made additions to phone notes in the days after the Christmas Eve incident, including to a note from 18 December – the date Dr Upton has accused Ms Peggie of risking patient care<\/a> with her actions.<\/p>\n

It stated “working nights, won’t make eye contact, won’t acknowledge my presence, haven’t had direct conversation but can feel the dismissal\/hostility” and was then added to in the early hours of 26 December.<\/p>\n

Jane Russell KC, who represents NHS Fife and Dr Upton, suggested to Mr Borwick he had been instructed to produce evidence that Dr Upton was lying – a claim that prompted an immediate objection from Ms Peggie’s legal team.<\/p>\n

Ms Russell later questioned whether a comment in Mr Borwick’s report saying Dr Upton was “silent on the matter” of phone notes was an “irresponsible accusation”.<\/p>\n

He replied that, with hindsight, perhaps it was.<\/p>\n

Mr Borwick said he had hoped to meet Dr Upton about the phone situation, but the meeting was cancelled by Ms Peggie’s legal team. <\/p>\n

The tribunal will continue next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phone records in a tribunal involving a row between a nurse and a trans doctor were not examined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-291647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114916129746105010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}