Harry's art teacher wins in Eton case

An art teacher who accused Prince Harry of cheating yesterday won her case for unfair dismissal against Eton College.

Sarah Forsyth, 30, took the $61,497-a-year public school to an employment tribunal, claiming that she had been treated unfairly when her contract was not renewed.

The tribunal panel issued stinging criticism of Eton as it upheld Forsyth's claim that she had been bullied by the school's head of art, Ian Burke.

But it rejected her allegations that Burke had ordered her to help Prince Harry cheat in his AS-Level art by completing his written work for him.

It also criticised as "unprofessional" her decision to secretly record a conversation with the Prince on his way to his final exam to try to support her claim.

Forsyth brought the case after Eton decided not to renew her contract after the northern summer of 2003.

She accused Burke, her head of department, of bullying her and giving improper assistance to pupils during exams.

During the tribunal hearing in May, Forsyth claimed that she had written most of the text of the Prince's AS-Level art coursework journal, something she said was "unethical and probably constituted cheating".

She also said that Burke had "touched up" Aboriginal-inspired artwork which was displayed to the media as an example of Harry's work when the Prince finished his time at Eton.

The Prince has strenuously denied any suggestion that he cheated and an investigation by the examination board Edexcel found no evidence of any improper behaviour.

In its 40-page judgment on the case, the panel said it was not the responsibility of the tribunal to rule whether cheating had occurred, arguing that this was a matter for the exam board.

But although the report described Forsyth as consistent and "truthful", on the whole it rejected her allegations about Prince Harry.

It ruled her relationship with Burke was so bad that it was not plausible he would have tried to enlist her help in any bid to cheat.

It concluded that her account of the help she had given the Prince was muddled and that Burke's story was more believable.

She said she had written a sample answer for the Prince to use as a guide which, in her account, was then cut up and stuck into the journal.

The tribunal sided with Burke, who said that Forsyth had not written the piece on her own but had simply sat with Prince Harry and suggested vocabulary.

The tribunal found that the appearance of the journal, on clean acetate sheets rather than "the claimant's somewhat muddled account of that text being produced on cartridge paper and subsequently cut up and altered", cast doubt on her version of the story.

It described Forsyth's secret recording of Prince Harry as the "least attractive aspect of the claimant's behaviour", and concluded had only been done to "improve her negotiating position" with the school.

But the panel was highly critical of Burke and said its "inevitable conclusion" was that Forsyth's dismissal had been unreasonable.

"He did undermine and bully her and that is evident by his use of the phrase 'the kid gloves are off'."

A spokesman for Eton said that the school regretted that its employment procedures had not been "up to scratch" but said it was pleased that the tribunal had rejected the "publicity-seeking" allegations regarding Prince Harry.

- INDEPENDENT