A GCSE student was disqualified for "obscene racial comments" after an examiner mistook her vegetarianism for Islamophobia, it has emerged.

Abigail Ward, a 16-yearold pupil at Gildredge House school in Eastbourne, East Sussex, was penalised for her observations about halal meat during a Religious Studies exam in June.

She was informed by exam board OCR she had committed a "malpractice offence" and would be disqualified from the qualification "due to obscene racial comments being made throughout an exam paper"

But the disqualification was overturned when it transpired Miss Ward, a strict vegetarian, was simply expressing her distaste for halal butchers.

Appealing OCR's decision, Gildredge School wrote to the exam board, saying her comment " which I find absolutely disgusting" related to her being a vegetarian and finding halal butchers disgusting.

The school explained the reference was not made in relation to Muslims, and that there were no other comments in the paper that could be construed as racist.

Upholding the appeal, the exam board apologised for the "upset and stress" and accepted their original letter "describing the frequency and severity of the comments was inaccurate". Abigail's mother, Layla Ward, a 36-year-old nurse, said she believed the examiner had been "over-zealous, over-righteous".