A NORTH-EAST lecturer who claimed a campaign of victimisation cost him his job and his mental stability has lost his fight for damages.

Michael Laidler, 51, suffered severe psychological injuries which he claimed were the result of incidents which included him returning to work in September 1995 to find his office containing his personal belongings had been demolished.

The former head of psychology at New College, Durham, felt undermined by colleagues and claimed that he was passed over for promotion.

During a five-day case at the High Court, at Newcastle, he said he was victimised for refusing to sign a new contract.

Mr Laidler, of Pity Me, County Durham, sued the college for personal injury, which he said resulted from its negligence and breach of contract.

Judge Christopher Walton said yesterday he could not accept Mr Laidler's version, because he believed the lecturer was already suffering from mental illness when the office was destroyed.

"It is clear that Mr Laidler holds, and has held for a considerable time, the view that he was the victim of a concerted action by certain individuals at the college as a result of his failure to sign the new contract," he said.

"If one thing has emerged from this case in a forcible way, it is that the view he did form, on the information before him, was a profoundly mistaken one."

Judge Walton dismissed the claim and ordered Mr Laidler to pay defence costs.

New College principal John Widdowson said: ''The college is satisfied with the judgment in this case and, naturally, we hope that Mr Laidler and his family can now resume a normal path of life. They do so with our best wishes."

Mr Laidler is considering taking his fight to the Court of Appeal.

He said: "It would seem that I have been castigated as a person who acted with some kind of moral conscience that is today found unacceptable, and almost warrants the categorisation as a psychological illness.

"I just wonder what kind of society we live in that rejects any idea of right and wrong.

"I have been destroyed at work, my health's been destroyed and now I face potential financial ruin.