Plan B Forum

A POLICEMAN who claimed he was left an emotional mess after an internal email suggested he was "ugly" has lost his compensation bid.

Australian Federal Police officer Stephen "Marto" Martin said he was so distressed by a group email linking it to a news article, titled "ugly men make more sperm during sex, study suggests".

The story, which suggested that women wanting to get pregnant should find themselves an ugly man, was sent to the married officer and 15 colleagues.

Martin said he was gripped by "panic attacks, sleeplessness and tearfulness" after receiving the email, a tribunal was told.

Mr Martin lodged a compensation claim over the incident with the federal government's compensation authority, Comcare, but his claim was rejected.

The tribunal's senior member Jill Toohey rejected the claim and said that she "did not find Mr Martin a particularly impressive witness".

"There are significant inconsistencies in his evidence and some of his explanations are not plausible,' Ms Toohey said.

One reason was that Mr Martin did not seek medical attention "for over six weeks" after the email, which seemed unusual given he had described the email as "one of the most distressing things I have ever seen," she said.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/u ... _multiline