Marie Auma says that after being denied leave at Southwark police station she was bullied by colleagues who would break wind at her desk

Barack Obama’s British cousin is suing the Metropolitan police for £400,000, claiming she was subjected to a campaign of bullying and humiliation.

Marie Auma, of Palmers Green in north London, said officers and employees pursued a conspiracy against her, including two who deliberately broke wind beside her desk at Southwark police station.



Auma, 57, who was at the US president’s inauguration in 2009, claims she was belittled and humiliated by some colleagues when she worked as a civilian in the telephone investigations bureau. She said the campaign against her began when she was refused leave to visit her brothers’ grave after they died in a car crash in Kenya in 2007, resulting in her retirement due to mental health difficulties.

Her barrister, Lorraine Mensah, told judge Simon Freeland QC at Central London county court that Auma, whose job involved liaising with crime victims, had been the victim of “21st century bullying”. The Met, represented by barrister Iain Daniels, denies liability.

Mensah said few of the individual incidents that occurred between 2007 and 2009 could be said to be harassment, but together formed a culture of “overzealous, oppressive managing” of Auma, where she was forced to take “inappropriate breaks” making it impossible for her to meet her targets.

She told the court Auma had been branded a troublemaker in the force’s “rumour mill” after she complained at being denied leave to visit Kenya after her brothers’ accident. She said there was a “pack mentality” and that the rumours led directly to an officer and another civilian employee deliberately breaking wind at her desk.

“Most of the behaviour was open,” said Mensah. “The passing of wind at her desk in an open plan office is an attempt to belittle her and humiliate her.”

When the officer was moved to another unit, the number of memos which Auma had to deal with soared, she continued. When she was moved to another unit at Rotherhithe police station, the perception about her followed, to the extent that she was treated differently from her colleagues by more senior staff.

She added: “There was clear evidence before the defendants that she was suffering stress, causing her ill health, and she attributed that to the bullying and harassment that she complained of.”

Auma had to take time off work due to chest pains in the second half of 2008, which she put down to anxiety and stress caused by her situation at work. She eventually suffered a mental breakdown and was admitted to hospital, and never returned to work before she retired due to ill health.

Mensah said the Met could at any time have “controlled or stopped” the harassment and so prevented Auma from mental injury.

Auma is related to Obama through her aunt, Kezia Obama, the president’s stepmother, who lives in Bracknell, Berkshire. In 2009, when Obama became president, she travelled with Kezia Obama to Washington for his inauguration.

The hearing continues.