A stressed headteacher who left his primary school post claiming the board of governors and education authority ignored his cries for help has lost his legal battle for damages.

A county court hearing was told that 55-year-old Ernest Longstaffe was told to "hack it or go" when he told governors he was developing health problems because of the stress of running Sunderland's largest primary school.

The hearing, at Newcastle County Court, heard that Mr Longstaffe was claiming damages from the governors of Hill View Junior School and Sunderland City Council, claiming they ignored him when he tried to explain his problems to them, and he eventually left in 1999. Both had denied liability.

Mr Longstaffe, whose address was given in court as Harland Way, Washington, near Sunderland, but who is now living in a remote area of the Pennines, had told the hearing he developed severe headaches, facial pains and high blood pressure because of the stress of the job.

At the end of a four-day hearing, Judge Christopher Walton dismissed the claim, saying there was no evidence to suggest that either the governors or the education authority ignored him, and that once his problems became apparent they tried to help.