A mum has been ordered to pay the legal fees of a midwife she took to court after discovering she had slept with her baby's dad.
Michelle Pryor had given birth to her fourth child, Skylar, at Liverpool Women's Hospital when midwife Joanne Lumsden told her she had met her partner, Merseyside Police Sergeant Gary Hayden.
Ms Lumsden - who appeared on Channel 4 documentary One Born Every Minute - later called Ms Pryor at home, revealing that she'd had sex with Sgt Hayden after meeting him in the Spanish resort of Benidorm.
She also told Ms Pryor, now 41, that their affair had continued for a short time after they returned from Spain - and that Sgt Hayden had claimed he was single, reports the Liverpool Echo.
In a court judgment, Ms Lumsden said she'd had brief sexual relationship with Sgt Hayden in November 2016 after their return from holiday. Mrs Lumsden said this ended when Sgt Hayden told her he was planning to reattempt a relationship with a woman he had got pregnant on a "one night stand".
Ms Lumsden claimed Sgt Hayden wanted them to "remain friends on Snapchat" and that their affair ended amicably. However, Ms Lumsden said she deleted his contact details as she did not feel it was appropriate to stay in contact in light of his "new" relationship.
However, during the short period when he and Ms Lumsden were having a sexual affair, Sgt Hayden continued his relationship with Ms Pryor, the court heard.
Liverpool Women's Hospital sacked Ms Lumsden for failing to declare a conflict of interests when she realised Ms Pryor was Sgt Hayden's partner, and for contacting her about the affair.
Ms Pryor - who said her relationship with Sgt Hayden ended soon after the affair came to light - then launched legal action against both Ms Lumsden and the hospital at the High Court for "breach of privacy rights" and "breach of the duty not to act in conflict of duty".
But a High Court judge has now ruled that Ms Pryor "did not have a legal case" - and has ordered her to pay Ms Lumsden's legal costs.
Senior Master Barbara Fontaine ruled Ms Pryor's legal team, Bond Turner, had failed to argue a "legally coherent cause of action".
In her judgment, the judge said: "The primary reason for the Claimant’s distress was the growing realisation that Gary Hayden had been lying to her and had probably been unfaithful to her, particularly during her pregnancy, with the unpleasantness of the situation exacerbated by the circumstances of having just given birth, and the suspicion that the treating midwife had been the person with whom Gary Hayden had had a sexual liaison.
"The most that could be said about the pleaded conduct, in my view, is that it was conduct calculated to embarrass, humiliate and cause distress to the Claimant. There is no tort to remedy this."
Master Fontaine also said Ms Pryor's decision to share her story with journalists - albeit anonymously at the time - meant any reasonable expectation of privacy "would be extremely difficult to maintain".
Ms Pryor must now pay the legal fees of both Ms Lumsden and Liverpool Women's Hospital.
Ms Pryor told the Echo: "I am shocked and saddened by the outcome of my legal claim against Joanne Lumsden and Liverpool Women’s Hospital.
"The news is still raw and I have not yet had an opportunity to fully come to terms with the unexpected outcome. I have spent the last four years fighting for justice through the English Legal System to hold Joanne Lumsden and Liverpool Women’s Hospital accountable for Ms Lumsden’s breaches as a midwife.
"Although the decision is disappointing for my family and I, one of the motivating factors in fighting for justice and bringing Ms Lumsden’s conduct to the public domain is through my belief that Ms Lumsden’s conduct should be open to public scrutiny.
"No woman should be faced with this diabolical ‘treatment’ at childbirth, at one of the most vulnerable times of a woman’s life."
Her former partner Sgt Hayden apologised for his behaviour after the Liverpool Echo first published the story in March 2018.
He said at the time: "I want to make an apology to my ex-partner and speak out in support of her and my child. I’m really sorry for what’s happened and I know I’ve let you down. It wasn’t a relationship I had and was just a ‘fling’ which didn’t mean anything to me."
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