Black PC in race bias case is awarded pounds 8,000

A BLACK policeman was awarded pounds 8,000 compensation yesterday after claiming he suffered a two-year ordeal of racism by other officers.

PC Woodrow Bryan - who had already served 10 years in the Jamaican police force where he reached a rank equivalent to sergeant - was constantly picked up for minor mistakes during training while similar mistakes by whites were ignored. He says he was subjected to a 'catalogue of racism' from 1990 to 1992 while training at Hendon, north London, and in his probationary period at Fulham.

Scotland Yard denied liability but agreed a compensation package which includes reviewing plans for a support network for officers suffering discrimination.

The review will also look at plans for race relations and equal opportunities training for all officers and civilian workers.

PC Bryan's case was supported by the Commission for Racial Equality, whose lawyer Makbool Javaid accused the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Condon of misusing the public immunity defence.

'In this case the fact that the police refused to release the investigation report . . . causes us great concern. We take the view this was an inappropriate use of the public interest immunity defence to stop such reports being disclosed to the public . . .

'We remain in the dark as to whether the police themselves found there had been discrimination. They have told us they are not taking any disciplinary action.'

PC Bryan, 36, who is based at Belgravia, central London, said: 'I took this case because of the way I was treated . . . It wasn't that there were any huge individual incidents. There were lots of small things and they all mounted up . . . In the end things were getting unbearable.'