![]() I was curious about nature and had the chance to go out and soak up the natural world and wonder about it. “I revelled in all the subjects that were on offer at UNE. “That’s been the story of my life,” Charlie says. The beauty of his Commonwealth scholarship was that Charlie had free rein to study what he liked the time and space to develop his own thoughts, “unfettered or unmoulded by those of others”. I’m sure I featured in many people's PhDs.” So I did psychology on the side and was welcomed by the psych department because I was a good lab rat. “But the problem was that it was in the arts faculty at UNE and all the subjects I wanted to do were in the science faculty. “I initially wanted to study psychology, to find out who I was,” says Charlie. ![]() The rural setting appealed, where he could connect with nature, but he connected with something much deeper, too. He chose UNE, Charlie says, to get as far away from Sydney as he could. “So can you imagine my shock, at the end of high school, when I earned one of only 10 Commonwealth scholarships to study anything I wanted, wherever I wanted in the country?” A blue-ringed octopus (Oci) became his beloved pet and young John Edward Norwood Veron would delight in introducing his classmates and teachers to his wildlife collection, most famously a funnel-web spider smuggled in in a biscuit tin – earning him the nickname Charles for his Darwin-esque tendencies. He preferred, instead, to explore Sydney’s rockpools and national parks in search of creatures. I was that sickly, deadbeat kid in the corner who was often belted for not doing what he was meant to be doing.” “I was near the bottom of the class in every subject and had no self-confidence. “I was such an underperformer at school,” Charlie recalls. In fact, the 1960s and 1970s on the Armidale campus was a time for him of discovery, scholarly independence and personal growth that set the scene for his stellar career. Ms Vernon declined to comment after the conclusion of the Employment Tribunal hearing.Long before he became the “godfather of corals” and sounded the alarm about climate change impacts on our magnificent reefs, acclaimed marine scientist Professor Charlie Veron studied possums and lizards and dragonflies at UNE. The Employment Tribunal found in Ms Vernon’s favour in her claim for sexual harassment (awarding her £3,250), but found against her in her claims for unfair dismissal and victimization. ![]() ![]() The Genuine Gemstone Company also alleged that Ms Vernon had been threatened with dismissal two weeks before this incident. However, Ms Vernon countered this with evidence that she had been consistently employed by the firm for over two years and that the company had sent her on a training course to India previously. The Employment Tribunal heard from Ms Vernon’s former employer that they did not consider her to have been an employee of the firm and that she had only been freelancing. She subsequently submitted an Employment Tribunal claim for sexual harassment, victimisation, and unfair dismissal, and this claim came to the Birmingham Employment Tribunal earlier this month. However, she was still live at the time and there was a complaint submitted which resulted in Ms Vernon losing her job on the grounds of gross misconduct. Although Ms Vernon attempted to take these comments in her stride she became visibly flustered and finally reacted angrily by swearing at the persons in question, thinking that she was off-air when she did so. On the day in question, Ms Vernon was presenting a segment of the show on antique bronze and copper items when her colleagues started making various inappropriate remarks that she could hear in her ear-piece, such as a “f***ing bitch” and a “big bitch”. ![]() Ms Charlie Vernon, 28, was working for The Genuine Gemstone Company as a presenter when the incident occurred last year. A former “Gems” TV presenter has won her claim for sexual harassment after colleagues made inappropriate sexual comments to her over the radio whilst she was live on air. ![]()
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