A black woman who attempted to sue Heathrow Airport has had her case thrown out after claiming that she was strip-searched “because of her race”. Veleta Brown alleged that she had been “violated” when security officer Sorien Monfries asked her to step aside for a “private search” in October 2022.
The project manager told an employment tribunal she had been “marched” to a side room with two security guards, an experience she described as “being treated as a criminal”. On the day of the incident, she had been on the way to a meeting with a contractor in a secure airside area of the airport which required her to pass through security – a process that included passing through an archway scanner.
The tribunal heard that Ms Brown, who was then working as a Delivery Project Manager at Heathrow, was asked to step aside for a body scan by Ms Monfries after activating the alarm. If the archway identifies a “zone of concern”, the individual is required to step to one side and asked to consent to a search which involves being patted down over their clothing and being scanned with a hand-held metal detector.
If a security officer believes that further investigation is needed then a private search can take place. Ms Brown accepted that the archway “cannot select on the grounds of race” but claimed that the private search was not typically undertaken. The airport disputed this claim, saying it was required when a security office "cannot satisfy themselves" that the "area of concern has been resolved”.
