SANDY Tilke has revealed how  being forced out of her job as a  firefighter  left her close to a  breakdown.

The 43-year-old, from Rewe,  near Exeter, who won her case  for unfair dismissal from the  fire service this week, has also  claimed that fire bosses offered  her an undisclosed sum in a bid  to stop the employment tribunal  going ahead.

As exclusively revealed in the  Echo, senior managers within  Devon and Somerset Fire and  Rescue Service were criticised  by the tribunal panel over their  treatment of Mrs Tilke.

She accused them of conspiring to get rid of her after she  returned to work following a  long period of sick leave.

During the hearing earlier  this year, she said senior managers waged a campaign of discrimination and victimisation  against her. The former military officer first took the service to a tribunal when she was  working at Exeter Fire Station  — claiming sexual harassment  in 2006.

Mrs Tilke said the two tribunals had consumed her life  for the last six-and-a-half years.

“So many cases against the  fire service don’t get as far as  the tribunal stage, but I knew  how badly I had been treated  and I wanted to stand up for  myself,” she said.

“Every level of senior management was against me. They  put hurdle after hurdle in front  of me. If it wasn’t for the support  of family and friends, I would  have suffered a breakdown.

“I was suffering sleepless  nights, incredible stress and I  ended up on medication — I was  mentally exhausted.” She  added: “I just wanted to get back  to work and be allowed to get on  with my job.”

In his judgement, Judge  Parker criticised former chief  fire officer Paul Young for circulating an email to all fire staff  about the outcome of Mrs  Tilke’s first tribunal.

He also accused the authority’s equality and diversity officer Andy Oaker of trying to  “protect” the service.

He said: “It is clear to us that  Mr Oaker saw it as his role to  protect the respondent from  complaint about the manner in  which it dealt with the  claimant’s disability in relation  to work.”

Speaking about the first tribunal in which Mrs Tilke accused male firefighters of deliberately leaving hard-core  pornography in the female toilet, she said: “The men would  use the female toilet and purposely leave hard-core porn  there. They would also leave it  fouled. Even when I asked them  not to do it, they still would.”

She added: “I am not an isolated case. Others that I know of  have suffered at the hands of  management in the fire service.  Staff morale there is at an  all-time low.”

Devon and Somerset Fire and  Rescue Service declined to comment.