A LESBIAN former soldier has lost a third of her massive payout from the Army for sex discrimination, victimisation and sexual harassment.

Last year the Ministry of Defence was ordered to pay Kerry Fletcher £186,000 after she won her high-profile employment tribunal against it.

The award was made up of £110,000 in damages, together with compensation for loss of earnings and pension entitlements.

The tribunal had heard how her career collapsed as a result of a male sergeant’s actions while she worked at an Army stables in Topcliffe, near Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

But now three judges sitting on the Employment Appeal Tribunal have reduced her payout by £62,000.

Mrs Justice Slade said Miss Fletcher was not entitled to £50,000 exemplary damages which had been originally awarded in a bid to “punish and deter” the Army after her treatment was found to be “oppressive, arbitrary and unconstitutional.”

The judge said exemplary damages were not appropriate, that the Army had been rightly condemned but that lessons had been learned and such behaviour would not be repeated.

“The Army’s conduct, deplorable though it was found to be, did not cross the high threshold warranting an award of exemplary damages,”

she said.

She also reduced the aggravated damages awarded to Miss Fletcher from £20,000 to £8,000.

Miss Fletcher, 32, now a civilian living in Germany, joined the Army in October 1996, and in June 1998 was posted to 3 Royal Horse Artillery, working in the stables.

By 2004 she had joined the 40th Regiment, Royal Artillery, based in Topcliffe In September 2004, after turning down the advances of a staff sergeant, she faced disciplinary proceedings over allegations of insubordination and lateness – allegations which the original tribunal did not believe.

After taking time off sick, she applied for a transfer, before handing in her notice on January 12, last year.