This case centred round an employee’s claim to right to privacy when their employer used, for internal disciplinary purposes, private material seized by the police in the course of a criminal investigation and to which the police gave the Respondent access after the criminal investigation came to an end. The Claimant was dismissed after the police disclosed the information they had obtained on the Claimant.
The Employment Tribunal concluded that the Claimant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of emails sent to a work colleague, with whom he had had a relationship, and photographs on his iPhone. The Claimant appealed on the basis that he had a reasonable expectation that the private material would remain private and Article 8 was accordingly engaged.