US army pays out £567,000 to woman sacked for reporting sexual harassment

US army pays out £567,000 to woman sacked for reporting sexual harassment
Luydmilla Starkey said she lost her job after superior officer sent her "hundreds" of lewd texts and nude pictures of himself

The trainee and superior officer wirked together at the Presidio of Monterey, an army base in California Photo: Alamy

By Robert Tait, Los Angeles

8:03PM GMT 11 Feb 2016

The United States army has paid £567,000 in damages to a female former trainee who said she was sacked after reporting a superior officer for sexual harassment.

Lyudmila Starkey sued the army claiming that she lost her job after alleging that Sergeant Wayne Lord, a supervising officer, had sent her hundreds of sexually explicit text messages and nude photos of himself when they worked together at Presidio of Monterey, an army base in California.

@nose_army @SarahNobleLD Sexual harassment, maybe, but alas, sexual harassment is NOT A CRIME.

— jmb (@JahMMARastafari) February 8, 2016

She said was ostracised for reporting Sergeant Lord, whose wife worked as a lieutenant at the base and was her direct supervisor before her dismissal.

In a statement issued through her lawyers, Ms Starkey said she believed she was fired because Sergeant Lord was popular and she had dared to report him. He was later moved from the base and given another job at the US defence department.

"Rather than support me as the trainee officer that had been continuously harassed, the army chose to set me up for termination while at the same time finding my harasser a new job without any repercussions for him,” Ms Starkey said.

“He sends naked pictures and I’m out of a job, and he remains employed. I only hope that my coming forward helps other women and the culture at the Army of silence and retaliation will change.”

Mark Epstein, Ms Starkey’s lawyer, said the award was one of the largest ever made by the army to settle a sexual harassment case, adding that his client received hundreds of explicit texts from Sergeant Lord at all hours.

He said Sergeant Lord had a history of sexual harassment which the army knew about.

"I have never seen a stronger case of sexual harassment and wrongful termination,” he said. ”The text messages were highly sexual and incredibly offensive, not to mention plentiful."

An army spokesman expressed regret over the episode, adding: “The army and the Starkey family have agreed on a settlement so that all parties can move beyond this breach of army core values.”