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Nurses ‘wore gollywog trinkets to offend black colleagues’

TRIAL: Susan Horton, left, and Sarah Cullum wore gollywogs to mock black colleagues, a court heard

TWO NURSES clipped gollywog keyrings to their uniforms to mock black colleagues, a tribunal heard today (Sept 22).

Susan Horton and Sarah Cullum donned the offensive trinkets, brought for them as holiday souvenirs, on duty at St Mary's Hospital in Kettering, Northamptonshire.

Healthcare assistant Sandy Smith, who presented the pair with the keyrings, told the Nursing and Midwifery Council that she was unaware that they would be used to racially attack her black colleagues.

“On a number of occasions I witnessed Ms Horton pointing at the golly and pointing at the black nurses. If I'd known they would be used for ridicule and abuse, I would never have bought them,” she said.

“I grew up with gollys and I loved them - I didn't think there was anything political about them,” she added.

The hearing was also told that Horton and Cullum made monkey noises while discussing a black doctor during a campaign of racist abuse.

They allegedly referred to the medic as 'scary Mary' and said she “shouldn't be allowed to breed.”

Ms Smith also claimed that when the pair heard two black nurses from Guyana talking in their native language, “both made the comment that they were ‘jabbering away in their gobbledegook’”

Ms Smith said: 'Ms Horton and Ms Cullum both made the comment that they were "jabbering away in their gobbledegook".

Cullum and Horton are facing a total of 77 misconduct charges, a majority relating to racism, and many of which they have denied.

If the nurses are found guilty they could face being struck off.

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