Cambridge scientist awarded damages after 'barrage of yelling' from astronomer - Telegraph.co.uk

Dr Faulkner was also accused of being a ''subordinate who had over stepped the mark".

He later resigned over the bust up saying he had been bullied out of his £52,000 a year job and subsequently sued Manchester University which runs the observatory.

Today Dr Faulkner who now works at Cambridge University was celebrating after being awarded a total of £29,557.23 for unfair and constructive dismissal.

A judge said the work row had ''wholly overstepped the boundary of what can be considered to be proper behaviour.'' The case could cost the taxpayer several hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal costs.

Earlier a tribunal in Manchester was told Dr Faulkner had been part of a team designing the Square Kilometre Array which is expected to be 50 times more powerful than existing telescopes when it is completed in 2020 and is likely to be built on a remote Pacific island or desert area.

Initially Dr Faulkner who joined the university in 2004 enjoyed a good working relationship with project leader Prof Peter Wilkinson who had written the first paper in 1990 describing the concept for the super-telescope.

Dr Faulkner who used to run a small computer firm was responsible for drawing up potential designs for the telescope.

But relations began to break down when Dr Faulkner claimed Prof Wilkinson was not hands-on enough, while the professor and other staff accused the engineer of taking to many decisions himself and ''overstepping'' his responsibilities.

Prof Wilkinson had expressed concerns about Dr Faulkner's role, saying he was ''wearing too many hats and his job description was too complicated''.

He claimed Dr Faulkner then presented proposals on the design which would have ''sidelined'' research on the telescope by Prof Missous and cause him to lose funding.

The situation reached breaking point when a crisis meeting in December 2007 between Dr Faulkner and Professors Wilkinson and Missous descended into a heated row.

During the hearing Prof Wilkinson admitted his colleague had stood up and shouted at Dr Faulkner but said: "He was in the position of a mother bear protecting her cubs. He felt the whole basis of his work was being attacked.

"I thought it was going to be a relatively amicable informal meeting. Clearly I was wrong. I was not expecting Prof Missous to be quite so vehement, even though Andrew had been fairly open in his dismissal of the research."

Dr Faulkner who lived in Goostrey, near Warrington complained about his treatment to another senior colleague who replied: ''About as bad as it could be. I apologise on behalf of my colleagues and I really don't know what to say. Why don't you take a few days relax and try not to let this get to you (difficult I know).

He later said he was frozen out of subsequent meetings and resigned from his post in August 2008. Dr Faulkner won an unfair dismissal hearing in 2009, but the Court of Appeal found flaws with the panel's decision making and ordered a retrial.

Now a fresh panel, chaired by employment judge Peter Russell, has ruled the scientist suffered constructive and unfair dismissal.

The judge said: ''We are satisfied that the claimant was subjected to a barrage of shouting and verbal abuse and it was made clear to him that he was a subordinate who had stepped out of line.

''The claimant gave evidence that Professor Missous was unbelievably unpleasant towards him. Clearly Prof Missous was upset because the claimant questioned the value of his research. However he conveyed his unhappiness by getting out of the chair and yelling.

''When the claimant suggested to Professor Missous that he could call him if he did not know what was going on he was forcefully told that: 'It is not the done thing for a professor to call a RA'.

''Prof Missous also suggested to the claimant that he was the same as all of the other RAs and why did he think any different.

''During the course of the meeting the claimant told the Professors he was considering resigning. We are satisfied that this was not an idle threat on his part but an understandable reaction to the way he had been treated.

''He raised his voice during the meeting in order to be heard but it was a case of him being shouted at rather than him shouting at the Professors

''We do not accept the respondent's contention that the meeting was an argument between mature and passionate people which was clumsily handled.

''On the contrary, we accept the claimant's evidence that it was a completely unacceptable meeting which wholly overstepped the boundary of what can be considered to be proper behaviour.''

After the case Dr Faulkner said: "It's nice to have it over with, but it's disappointing it had to go through twice. I'm deeply disappointed with the treatment of employees by Manchester University."

''The University must have spent a lot of public money on the whole process yet has not disciplined those professors to my knowledge.

''My lawyer tells me that these cases are hard to win at tribunal, so I am especially delighted at the result - even if I have had to fight this at my own expense.

''I am glad the matter is finally resolved.''