A Catholic former British soldier claimed he attempted suicide after being subjected to a campaign of sectarian abuse and harassment by Protestant colleagues, a Fair Employment Tribunal heard today.
Mr Patrick Murphy (33), from the South Down area, but originally from Belfast, is claiming that after he joined the Royal Irish Regiment fellow squaddies left bullets in his locker and sent a wreath to his home.
His barrister, opening the case, said that an Army recruiting officer in August 1996 advised him to change his name to Paul Murphy and to give his religious denomination as Protestant.
In his written statement to the tribunal Mr Murphy his nightmare began when he was posted in 1997 to Portadown, a mainly Protestant town. "When my personal background became known I began to be subjected to harassment, both at work and by colleagues."
He said he found notes containing sectarian abuse and bullets in his locker. One bullet, he claimed, had a white sticker saying "You are dead".
The Ministry Of Defence is denying that it unlawfully discriminated on the grounds of religious belief and political opinion and is claiming that Mr Murphy was unreliable.
It also argues that after he made one complaint about sectarian remarks in 1998 he did not pursue the matter. In its written statement the MoD said: "Mr Murphy has had a chequered past, he at times can be unreliable and his loyalty has fluctuated."
The applicant is claiming that the continuous discrimination had a strain on his marriage and he has frequently been separated from his Protestant wife.
"I was becoming increasingly depressed by the atmosphere at work and indeed the abusive and threatening phone calls to my home but felt my immediate superiors to be unsympathetic to my plight."
In October 1999 he visited the Army medical officer who prescribed tranquillisers. Later, after a Christmas wreath was sent to his home, he attempted suicide.