Zimbabwean health assistant told shocked colleague 'I want to have a chocolate ...

A Zimbabwean health assistant told a shocked colleague 'I want to have a chocolate baby with you' - then claimed racial discrimination when he was sacked by the NHS.

Farai Hombarume, 53, from Thornaby, Teesside, was considered a sex pest by female colleagues at a psychiatric unit, who dreaded his sexualised 'banter' at work.

He told one colleague he wanted to have a 'chocolate baby' with her and invited her to go outside with him during their break.

The women complained Hombarume was harassing them and one had to go on sick leave for several months due to the stress he had caused her.

Following disciplinary hearings he was fired for gross misconduct in 2019 from the job he had held for nine years.

But he fought back, accusing the Tees Esk and Wear Valley (TEWV) NHS Foundation Trust of discriminating against him because he was black.

At an employment tribunal in Middlesbrough he brought a case for racial discrimination, unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal from the Roseberry Park unit.

Giving evidence at the tribunal, Homburame said: 'I truly believe these accusations are based on my race, skin colour and mere hatred from the three staff members.

'I'm a family man, I have a partner who is a teacher and daughters of my own at university.

'I would never say the things I was accused of saying, they conspired against me and the reason I was treated the way I was came down to my race and the colour of my skin.

'There was an instance where I was racially abused by a patient, which is something that happens.

'However I expected my colleagues to be supportive but instead they laughed about it.

'The decision of the tribunal is very disappointing and I have written to them asking them to reconsider their findings.

'I had worked for that trust for 10 years on so many different wards and never had a complaint against me.'

Hombarume added: 'It was only on that ward with those particular people that this happened.'