A hospital receptionist who was allegedly attacked by a security guard after the pair’s “escalating” banter got “out of hand” has been awarded over £19,000 in compensation from a South London NHS trust. Ben Murphy, who was an administrator at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, has successfully brought a claim against his former employer after the trust suspended him over the incident. Mr Murphy told an employment tribunal he feared he would die when the security guard grabbed his throat and smacked his head against a wall during the tussle in July 2021.

The tribunal dismissed claims of constructive dismissal and wrongful dismissal but ruled in favour of Mr Murphy on a further claim that his suspension for his involvement in the physical altercation, when he was acting in self-defence, was unfair. The incident reportedly began as banter between the two men, with the security guard calling the receptionist “fat” and Mr Murphy branding his colleague “bald”, according to minutes of the employment tribunal held last June, the full judgement for which was published last month.

But the tribunal heard that the security guard “flipped” when Mr Murphy said something along the lines of “don’t get your mother’s knickers in a twist”, and allegedly put his hands around the receptionist’s throat, “nearly strangling” him. Mr Murphy fought back by getting the security guard in a headlock briefly and throwing punches at him, before other security staff broke up the fight, the tribunal was told.

The guard, who worked for contractor CIS Security, was reportedly sacked by the firm following the brawl. Mr Murphy was suspended by Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust and following a disciplinary hearing in November 2021, he was handed a first written warning for misconduct. A statement from the trust, explaining the sanction, informed the receptionist that he had acted “in a manner not commensurate with trust values i.e. respect and dignity to colleagues in the workplace”.

Mr Murphy resigned from Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust nine days later. The trust runs Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham and provides some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup, though the tribunal report does not state at which hospital the incident occurred. In his resignation letter, he commented on the fear he had experienced as a result of the attack and said he struggled with the fact he was “suspended for defending myself”. Mr Murphy added that he felt he had not been treated as a victim of a violent attack by the trust.

He subsequently lodged an employment case against Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust alleging unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, unlawful deduction of wages and health and safety detriment. Mr Murphy succeeded in his claim for health and safety detriment, but had all his other claims dismissed. Employment Judge Amanda Hart found that Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust had “failed to take into account that Mr Murphy was acting in self defence”, when it suspended him. She found that Mr Murphy’s suspension was ‘materially influenced’ by action he took in ‘circumstances of danger’ and that the receptionist was subjected to detriment as a result of this action.

The judge added that the support offered to Mr Murphy during his suspension was ‘wholly inadequate’ and amounted to a ‘breach of the duty of care towards him and sufficiently serious to constitute a detriment’. The decision continued: “Mr Murphy was clearly struggling and he did not receive the support he should have received over the period of his suspension.”. At a separate outcome hearing in October 2024, Mr Murphy was awarded over £4,300 for 18 weeks’ lost earnings during his suspension and £15,000 compensation for injury to feeling.