Transgender teenager wins £4,750 damages after human rights breached by Council

Council bosses have paid a vulnerable transgender teenager nearly £5,000 damages after a member of staff breached his human rights by revealing personal information.

The teenager, now 17, had taken legal action, saying the disclosure of information had damaged his mental health.

His legal team, headed by barrister Sarah Morgan QC, claimed that his human right to private and family life, enshrined in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, had been breached.

Bosses have agreed to pay £4,750 compensation.

Detail has emerged in a written ruling on the case by a High Court judge.

Mr Justice Keehan, who analysed evidence at private hearings in the Family Division of the High Court in London, said he had approved the payout.

The judge said the teenager has suffered “very considerable distress”.

He has not identified either the teenager or the council.

Mr Justice Keehan said the teenager, who had lived with adoptive parents, had been born female. About two years ago he had wanted to change identity and become male.

His adoptive parents had struggled to come to terms with his decision, relations had broken down and the teenager had moved to a foster home with the agreement of council social workers.

The teenager had then decided that he did not want his adoptive parents to be involved in his life or to be given information about him or about medical treatment he might undergo.

But earlier this year a council employee had disclosed personal information about the teenager to friends of his adoptive parents.

Mr Justice Keehan said the teenager’s mental health had been “very severely compromised” as a result.

“The local authority, very sensible and rightly, decided to concede it had, by the inexcusable actions of one of its employees, breached (his) Article 8 rights to respect for his family and private life,” said the judge.

“They agreed to pay damages in the sum of £4,750.”

He added: “I am satisfied that in light of the very considerable distress suffered by (the teenager) and the immediate adverse impact on his mental health, this appears to be an appropriate level of damages.”

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