This is absolutely disgraceful I am sure there are ways to help once you have provided the information requested above. If you have any idea of mortgage outstanding and the current value of the property that might also help. In the meantime try to make the additional payments you offered it will go well for you when you go to court. If the company refuse to accept additional payments I think that will also go in your favour that you've attempted to reduce the debt and the company won't let you. How did your mum come to be in arrears?

I cannot believe the mortgage lender will not help you. They will struggle to get market value for this house as with the background of 'suspect/actual subsidence' it will probably be mortgageable and therefore sell at a huge loss and still leave you with the outstanding debt. Try Trish McGirr We buy houses who has considerable experience in stopping repossession I understand. I also believe if you can put in for an appeal before the eviction it will stop the repossession until after the hearing. Hope someone else comes on to help you good luck

I understand that travelling on transport without having paid the correct fare is an absolute offence. Which means regardless of the treatment you received the company can take further action if they wish. I believe it would be worthwhile writing to the company to explain. I understand the procedure is normally to charge a £10 penalty and caution individuals not to do it again. You record was probably being checked to see if you had been cautioned before which 2nd time around they would probably consider prosecution. If I was you I would explain the situation and ask for them to consider their action in the circumstances to be disproportionate in not accepting your explanation. If they are not prepared to accept your explanation without any further action to request their policies in relation to first time infringements. Most stations in South East London have CCTV at the barriers so you could ask if this is the case and ask for it to be reviewed to prove that you did indeed touch the oyster reader with your card and it was their equipment that was defective. However if they leave barriers open for people to go through it encourages individuals not to check the reader has registered when going through. They should leave the barrier closed so it won't open if the card hasn't properly registered. Regardless of whether you may have inadvertently committed an offence, the ticket inspector should have acted with respect. I strongly suspect everyone will tell them they made a mistake, (have done it myself ) so it is down to the individual inspector to decide what action to take. If your oyster card is showing regular journeys and high spending I would hope you would receive the benefit of the doubt. Like you I also remember my card details but in face to face transactions (as opposed to on-line) it can't and shouldn't be accepted. I would say though it does display a willingness to co-operate. I think you got stopped by this guy when he had had a bad day or was trying to impress the other person with him but I can't see that someone who hasn't properly identified himself should be allowed to walk off with your oyster card for whatever reason. 40 minutes to deal with one person seems excessive as travellers are frequently stopped by Inspectors at London Bridge and I think if it took 40 minutes to deal with each person the backlog would cause chaos in the mornings! I hope you get a more sympathetic hearing from the South Eastern trains. I have the other problem a disability that affects my memory. The number of times I have tapped in but forget to tap out has cost me an unmitigated fortune. Nobody has turned up to offer me a refund and I even had someone tell me it's a fine for forgetting to tap out!

I agree you should seek clarification before considering to turn up for an interview under caution. I suspect however they will not process your new claim and may say that you were trying to claim for more than one property and they didn't receive any notification from you of your change of address. Speak to the Citizens Advice Bureau and take any proof of your correspondence with you to them. I wouldn't go for an interview under caution without legal representation. Being cautioned means they suspect you of an offence.

Maybe you should try getting some publicity for your case by writing to a local newspaper. Maybe if it's seen by a solicitor they may help him. You could do it by way of an appeal asking for the help.

Am in a similar situation myself and my case is due to be thrown out today. I am unable to complete something requested using prescribed acts. Has your friend got any household insurance? Sometimes it covers legal expenses but it may be too late for that as he had already lost the case. The medical report needed to be submitted together with an application for postponement under the civil court rules which is why is wasn't read beforehand and the case continued. If you are not entitled to legal aid then there is the Free Representational Unit and the National Pro Bono unit. Neither are quick and you have to be referred to them by other agencies like CAB (but not them all). You must have a court date already allocated to get on these lists and it is pot luck if someone volunteers to help you with your case. There might be a community law centre near you but help would depend on the type of case you have and you could phone your local MP at Parliament and ask them what to do. There is a disability law society but the two referrals they gave me didn't help as they wanted paying. I took to the street in Temple Inn with a bill board begging for help with no avail. The Human Rights Act says disabled people should have equity in obtaining justice but I think the equity is with other poor people. Justice in this country is administered by the rich for the rich. In my case the other side had a solicitor and barrister were being paid for out of public funds. There will be a time limit to appeal and probably conditions under which you can appeal so perhaps the Citizens Advice Bureau or the Community Law centre might be able to advise here. You could try Mind or some of the other mental health charities but they don't seem to help individuals and will only give you a couple of numbers. I've tried all these to no avail and feel absolutely suicidal. Hope your friend has better luck.

Just looked up DIY soundproofed fence. Won't cut out all the noise but might reduce it enough for you. Just a thought!

My friend had a similar problem with a cockerel. The council told the owner to get rid of it which he did but them 'anonymous' harassment of my friend took place, culminating in her house being set on fire when she was in it. Any chance you can get free double glazing? I think your neighbours have come some way so stop the cock crowing and keeping the hens in til 09:30. Surely you would expect some noise during the day, traffic, children etc. What about changing your office from the living room to a back bedroom. Maybe some light background music to distract you. I have background music on as I work from home. I lived near a motorway and on a flight path and after a short while I got accustomed to the noise and didn't hear it anymore. I've used ear plugs once or twice when I worked in an open plan office and really needed to concentrate and cut out some of the background noise. It may be annoying but sometimes I think adapting a little bit to accommodate our neighbours may be the right thing to do. Unless the cockerel and hens are really really noisy and others are complaining, I'm not sure the council can do much about that during the day.

Thank you so much for the Tamara Lewis info. Wish I could have come across this earlier I might be further on by now.

I was dismissed at the end of January 2012. My claim was submitted at the beginning of May 2012 the last act of discrimination was Feb 2013. The pension was held up because of my ex company. They failed to reply to something that was sent in August 2012. I'm not sure when it was started again but I have to fill out forms originally submitted in July 2012 again in November 2012. In July 2012 I had authorised contact with medical advisors and this hadn't been done by the company and should have been submitted with the papers. Although I had to resubmit my application and authorisations I already had updated medical reports in preparation for a case but it I applied under DPA to those involved in processing the application for dates of what happened. I didn't bother with my ex company I don't believe the info they send would either be correct or complete. Whatever sent would be undated extracts in no particular order and redacted. I expect that the company will say my original disability discrimination claim was out of date. The unfair dismissal was submitted in April 2012 but as they subsequently approved my ill health retirement and backdated my claim to the end of January 2012 they are saying there was no loss to me. I see what they are doing, as with unfair dismissal there is no claim for personal harm ie my professional reputation and my credit rating but I am keeping this open because I had to pay everything on credit cards, lost out on savings interest etc. It was the stress and lack of interest when I had been notifying them for years their late payments was impacting upon me. If this incident is not accepted under my disability discrimination then I want to put it under a loss for unfair dismissal. I also think the process was unfair and is was not possible for me ever succeed in the capability process as I was unwell and I believe it must at least be possible to succeed at a capbility process otherwise the process itself is unfair. I am less interested in arguing the fairness of their laid down processes given that they don't follow them anyway and what some individuals did to me was to deliberately destroy me professionally, financially then destroyed my health and reputation to save their own sorry backsides. Those who knew what was going on were either to afraid for themselves to intervene or sided with protecting the company from losing a legal action. I was literally dispensable and disposable and was never supposed to ascertain the real truth of what had been happening which they had tried to keep covered up. This gives me a problem getting some witnesses I'm hoping I can use the question stage/discovery of the process to get this. Problem is I could do with some of this detail before I complete the prescribed acts but the Judge wouldn't give me any at this stage and said it was not a matter for this court that the DPA requests had not been fully complied with.

Thank you for the update. Glad you got it resolved. So sorry you had to go through this stressful situation in the first place.

Thank you for your replies. The bad treatment made me ill. The company were made aware that it was making me ill and impacting upon my health. They were advised that my illness had become a disability. The bad treatment continued and it wasn't happening to others. So discrimination is easy whether I can prove I was discriminated because of my disability is going to be hard. The best I think the organisation can do is to show yes I was discriminated against but it wasn't because of my disability which would mean they could win but at least that is a vindication and maybe I could go after damages later. Since 2011 when I was back at work I was under minute scrutiny because of the capability process, and yes things were still happening. When I raised the issues despite them being against policy ie what as the laid down process for everyone it was not applied to me. Despite these happening at work I was not allowed to pursue the internal processes at work or look or find my witnesses. Whatever my medical advisers said was ignorned, HR were extremely agressive and eventually I was dismissed in January 2012 on capability grounds because of ill health. This was humiliating and again affected me professionally as I was taken off the premises upon dismissal as though I had done something wrong. This was changed on appeal and accepted that ill health retirement should have been sought but wasn't considered. It then took over a year to pay me my contracted entitlement to an ill health pension which again I had no updates but know at one time the process was stopped and then restarted because of lapses of time. This has caused massive financial problems for me including my credit rating and struggling to try to put everything right whilst ill. I believe I know what happened and it was I eventually discovered that there was a catalogue of decisions which has been taken in relation to another project that impacted upon my situation. I understand that individuals involved in the original disciplinary who bullied me were involved in something else where similar problems regarding integrity had been raised and this had given rise to either a potential of being sued or perhaps there was a claim against them, I'm not sure. There was a sufficient vested interest by the company anyhow not to have this come to light. I only learned this in 2011 and I couldn't get any further clarification but it made so much sense to me. I then found that there were a number of other complaints against at least one of the individuals which has either been unfounded or not dealt with. I was being victimised because the company I believe was trying to protect their position and couldn't afford to have their position jeopardised or the individuals being part of other complaints and tainted. The decision therefore was to do everything to quieten me and prevent me from finding out what was really going on not to look into my complaints knowing it was esacerbating my illness. I therefore believe it was a conscious decision to allow the discrimation against me and used my disability in order to protect the company's own interest. To be honest I only want to present my case with the overall story and statements I have and leave it for the judge to decide why I was discriminated against and if it was my disability. I neither knew or understood what was happening or why and everything has been done to prevent this but I can show that claims the company wanted to negotiate a settlement and have me back at work were untrue. I got the documents by mistake. My fear is that I never get this case to court because everything they say in CMD's seems to be accepted and I can't adequatly argue what they are saying because of case law. There has never been such an obvious distinction to me about people in society and there has been for an ordinary hard working sick individual without substantial funds tyring to seek justice. To hear the Government trying to make it harder for indiduals to bring cases by charging for tribunals to put off malicious claims makes me despair. If only one in 10 claims are successful at tribunal it's more likely to be that the law is too difficult for individuals to have any chance of success. There was always a remedy for malicious and vexacious claims in a tribunal, in that was it found to be so the tribuanl could award costs. To me not to be heard would be the final injustice. I'm so upset just writing this I just need to focus on trying to get the best legal arguments I can so as to get to court and to get the incidents right

It may be the case that the people you deal with on the first phone call are disinterested. It helps to ask for the supervisor if you don't get the response you want at first. Note down what is said. If you still don't get any help put a complaint to your local councillor. My council are good at some things and not so good at others but you really do have to contact them to see what their position is. If you do contact them and try to make an arrangement then you could use it if you actually wanted to attend for the liability order hearing. Otherwise it is just a rubber stamping exercise. Actually I also had to contact a different council on behalf of my mother who is elderly and gets confused. The most difficult part of that was getting them to speak to me on the subject because my first contact I was with her and she gave her authority for me to speak on her behalf. When they didn't do what they agreed to and I tried the follow up call when I was not with her they wouldn't said they couldn't speak to me because my mother's authorisation was only for one call. This is despite me having got my mother to write a letter which I posted and paid for signed delivery. Once I got the supervisor it got sorted out but it took me a while to convince my mother she wasn't going to be arrested and prosecuted because that council had sent her a summons and she is exempt but they were still processing her form. I tried to explain to the first guy I spoke to, that the council wouldn't look very good if I turned up to the hearing to explain my mothers condition but he said they would'nt let me speak if I didn't have an authority from my mother! If I could have reached down the phone I would have liked to strangle him because but a quick chat to the supervisor got the matter sorted but I was still left to deal with my mother's distress as it was difficult to convince her she wasn't going to be arrested for money she didn't owe. Like I say if you don't get any sense or sensitivity off the first person you speak to, ask for a supervisor and let's hear what the council have to say first but do take notes, can't be worse than you are already speculating but who knows you might be in for a surprise. Let's hear what the council have to say.

By the way the court date is normally shown on the summons

Speak to the council straight away. This has happened to me once or twice over the years. If you don't get in touch and tell them what the problem is they can't do anything. On the times is happened to me there was £80 costs on top of the tax owed and on both occasions they dropped the charge and we went onto a payment plan. If they are difficult with you then you can try CAB, debtline and everything else but get in touch they aren't mind readers and everything is done is bulk. Don't wait til the court date because you are just putting them to extra expense and making it harder for yourself to speak either phone up or get yourself down to your local council tax office and speak to them but phone is just so easy. At this stage if you are still in the same tax year tI suspect they will just rearrangement the remainder of your repayments to cover what you owe to the end of the year. If you still can't pay or won't be paying an instalment then get in touch with a debtline charity

A few years ago I was the victim of a theft. whilst working. I was carrying some bits and pieces that belonged to my company and I told them about it. My office was in a different country from our HQ . There was no lone workers policy and did not offer me any support as a victim. A disciplinary was initiated but the focus was not on what had happened but to see if I might have stolen the articles reported missing instead. The individuals who carried out the enquiry visited my office when I wasn't there and went through everything there including private personal things I kept there. The guy in charge of the enquiry had IMHO quite a chequered history I was to learn some time later and when I returned to my office he bullied and threatened me. It was six months until I actually had my disciplinary meeting which took place after the enquiry and then a further 8 months until my disciplinary hearing. To cut a very long story short of three potential disciplinary failings one was dropped before the hearing, one was dropped at the hearing but one was upheld and I was to be given a verbal warning which would have stayed on my record for six months. I appealed and a month later the failing was still upheld but the penalty the verbal warning was removed.. So basically I went through a nightmare just to be told I could have done better. The worse thing is that no-one would even have known about it if I hadn't reported it myself which was the professional thing to do. An enquiry was started into my manager after he had backed me a couple of months after mine was but he did not have to remain in HQ nor was his office searched. This was the reason given for the enquiry taking so long because they were waiting for him to come back to the UK which he didn't do until some eight months after my enquiry started and six months after his started. Although that was his first disciplinary meeting I know that he was told he would be ok but he wasn't going to be convinced until he got it in writing. During the whole process I had been treated like a criminal with leprosy. I was given no updates on what was going on but had to remain at HQ whilst all this was going on. There were all sorts of rumours flying around and all my professional contacts were aware something was happening and because of the length of time taken I guess they would have thought it something really bad. I had been in the process of moving house abroad so my possessions were all packed up and in storage there. I was a strong person but all this had made me very very ill and seven months after the enquiry started I went sick. I had submitted a complaint under the Employment Act a year into the enquiry when I heard a rumour that the second guy on the enquiry had taken a briefcase and laptop home to write my report, left them in his car on the driveway which had been robbed. To this day I do not know when this event took place but was told nothing was in the briefcase although I think it was about 8/10 months into the enquiry. He was quietly moved to a different section. It was only after my complaint that this was looked into and some sort of enquiry did take place and not on the scale it had with me but I was told nothing that related to me had gone missing. Four years later and I find the key record that would have supported my version of events has been conveniently lost. In truth I believed I had a good case for sex discrimination at this point but I didn't know enough because it was all kept quiet. I was told that I wasn't threatened and that it was just my perception. It wasn't so I went and took a lie detector because I knew of no other way of defending myself. A man's word seems to be worth more than that of a woman's still today. It was acknowledged as a result of my complaint that the company had got it wrong and the head wanted the matter cleared up so I went into settlement negotiations through my solicitor but that went around in circles for a couple of years I believe waiting for the boss to retire and when he did the company pulled out. Things were still going wrong and my advice was that the situation was continuing but my health was really bad. I had a disability by this stage and things just kept on happening. No one was ever treated the way I was and lots of people mainly women who had complaints about their treatment some even by the same individual who threatened me. Unfortunately most have asked me not to use their names as they are frightened of speaking out. The guy just had friends who were protecting him and then didn't want any problems because of the project he was working on which was something again I didn't find out about for until 2011. It is so difficult to deal with this matter because it makes me feel suicidal when I have to go back over it. I lost faith in the legal profession not that I can afford them now anyway but I struggle to function at all some days. I'm told that I've been so traumatised by events that unless I can get some closure on what happened it's not possible to start treatment and it's just kind of a holding job for me. My closure is to get this case to court , I have no expectations as to winning it, the company has all the documents I need and I have no way of getting them from them. They didn't even respond properly to my requests for information under the Data Protection Act. What they did give me was like a extracts from documents with all names and dates removed and in no order at all. There was a time I could have dealt properly with this but not now so I hold little hope of success in court but I'll be content just to get there. Everywhere I turn they want more paperwork off me and don't realise just how difficult it is for someone like me to do what they are asking. What should take an hour or two will take me weeks and months to get through. I could never have believed how debilitating stress and depression could be before it happened to me. I was given advice right at the beginning just to let the company get on with their process and then to deal with it at the end . With hindsight I should have put an ET claim in the same time as the original complaint but as they say hindsight is a wonderful thing and I believed I would be treated fairly but the time I realised this wasn't going to happen I was too ill to do anything else. One of the things I have been told by the court is that I must show I made a complaint to the office about disability discrimination. I made complaints but I didn't specifically mention the complaint was disability discrimination I reported actions which were discriminatory and that ithe actions were impacting on my health but how is a sick person supposed to know that a court in the future would be expecting specific wording in their complaint. In my company I wanted them to make some adequate enquiries and they would discover what the motivation was. The reality was they already knew and just wanted the whole thing and me to go away. They have half achieved this and who knows they may still achieve the rest of it.

I have been given court directions to prepare a schedule of 'incidents' to clarify my claim for disability discrimination giving the date of the incident and brief details of the event. My claim is that the discrimination was continuing and I am worried this will affect the claim. The respondent wants to go through each i'incident' to eliminate them but I need the court to look at the overall picture. This is for the particulars of claim can anyone clarify if this is what I am supposed to do for a particulars of claim in disability discrimination and where I might find some example on the internet of how to lay it out. The respondent is looking to srike out early incidents as out of time but I want to argue the continuity of the case. Any examples of what I have to do and case law on continuity claims in disability discrimination would be gratefully received

Lots of contracts say you have to stay engaged with HR departments whilst on sick leave. Just the same I personally would not let my employers into my home. I would agree to meet somewhere quiet and local. A hotel lobby where you can get a cup of tea or a quiet coffee shop. HR are working on a return to work plan and will be starting making adjustments to get her back to the workplace. FIT notes should say what if any duties the person is able to undertake and if they say none then none it is. My experience is that HR are going through a process to get your friends daughter back to work. Failure to do after making all reasonable adjustments can lead to instigation of some type of capability process ie they can get rid of her. On the other hand if she stays off sick they can probably do the same. HR departments will always say we really want the employee back but really they just want the problem sorted. It is also likely they may ask her to see an occupational health official ie a doctor paid for by the company to make an assessment. Non co-operation could give a negative slant later on but if she hasn't been properly diagnosed yet she is likely to feel this HR action is inappropriate just yet. They won't. If she likes the job co-operation and negotiation will be in her interest but stress will come if they push her down a line where she isn't able. Her health is paramount and maybe she could turn up to the meeting with someone else or have it at her parents house with them present. HR will be asking what she thinks she can do at work despite the fit notes obviously saying nothing at the moment. When she goes back to work she is likely to be under micro management to make sure that she only does what has been signed up to and that she does what she is asked. The reason is her company are laying the ground in case they have to dismiss her in the future. This could go fine or turn ugly in the future. The company are taking care of their interests but the sick person is very rarely able to think in these terms and focused on just trying to get better or find out what is wrong with them. Home should be a sanctuary. You can cut an outside meeting short when you aren't feeling well you will struggle if they are in your house and cause you any upset. HR are trained and briefed to make a person feel valued by the company but make no mistake everyone is replaceable and they will not consider it good for business to have someone on sick leave for substantial periods of time.

You can go to Citizens advice who will provide free advice. You don't say if your health problems prevent you from working or as a result of being controlled and not allowed to work. Being financially dependant upon someone is still a form of control so if you have decided to make that break why not make it completely. After all you don't have shared assets or children. It may seem a step back at first in terms of lifestyle but it's a small price to pay to get your independence and own life back. There are so many charities and support groups around you will soon get back on your feet. Have a look at the Enterprise Nation website there are so many ways to get started and so things on your own even if you have to work from home. Even if you husband has savings you don't want to waste time and energy fighting for it. Use your energy to be amazing and go forward to get yourself and a new and better life.

Post viral fatique seems to describe something which is not work related and something you may well get over work related stress relates to something in the work place which unless whatever is causing you the stress is removed or you have assistance with some sort of adaptation then you could get worse. Do you want redundancy and is it likely you company might ask for volunteers first? In my experience the company will do what is best for the business and if you no longer fit they would prefer you move on. If the stress is being caused by the changes at work and you don't see that getting any better. If it is the changes that you have difficulty coping with it doesn't sound like it will get better in the short term. Stress that continues on for a long time and leaves you unhappy can easily manifest into depression and anxiety and you could find yourself unable to cope with anything at all. Your rights relating to redundancy I believe are related to your contract I suspect someone more experienced will be along shortly. If you call it something it isn't and end up very ill in the future you could be setting yourself up for difficulties in the future on the other hand if you show yourself as going ill because you are unable to adapt to the changes and uncertainty going on at the moment in your company, maybe it is time to be thinking about a change . If I could turn back the clock I should have left my job before I became so ill it has cost me a lot of years and battling an illness I never imagined would happen to me nor could I imagine how debilitating and devastating it could be in life. You are the only person who has a vested interest in your health. IMHO if you are now questioning if you can put the correct illness on your sick note in case of repercussions you are already in the wrong job. Good luck

I'm not an expert in this but it is my understanding that if the person that bought the car claims they did so in good faith and completed signed the V5 registered keeper document they should have tear off slip and the rest forwarded onto the DVLA. You could make enquiries of the police if the third party had a receipt for the car and had sent anything to DVLA. Unless the third party can be shown to be part of the criminal transaction action ie knowingly purchased a stolen vehicle then I think the police might leave it to insurance companies to sort out who now is the legal owner. Sounds harsh I know. Try speaking to the DVLA and ask for info and if you can't get any info from the police try a complaint. The police are clearly involved in an ongoing criminal enquiry so do not have to give you information related to an ongoing criminal enquiry and I think you will be referred to your insurance company. Here you have the problem of the key being hidden in the car. Hopefully you have a good reason for having a key hidden on the car but if it was that key used to steal the car and the thief is someone known to you, you may struggle to convince them that there was no blame on your part. Maybe someone saw you put the key where you did. It would appear to me that this is a matter for the insurance to sort out and the type of policy you have. Maybe they will allow a hire vehicle on your policy. There is a possibility if you know the person who stole the car they might have claimed that you gave them permission to sell the car and these are things to clear up in the witness statement. I am so sorry to hear that you have lost your job over this. Theft to me is a horrible crime the repercussions can be life altering for the victim and I think the courts should take account of this in sentencing. It doesn't matter whether the consequences could have been foreseen because they didn't care about consequences in the first place. The police will tell you that you can take action against the thief but as the only remedy is financial, the chances are they have no money anyway and it would cost you money to take action, it's a complete waste of time. Someone else may be along with some better more helpful information but I think your only hope it that you insurance company can help you and maybe give you a time frame for sorting this out.

Lily the Pink. Sadly yours is a very common story. Now you know the score ie the bullies gang up and people don't want to take them on as they will fall victim. If I was you and have to have dealings with any of these individuals again make sure you have a tape recorder with you for your own protection! Not good to feel vulnerable at work but this is for your protection only. Do not play to third parties unless required for a court. It is legal but courts don't like it. Only for conversations at which you are present and party to, do not leave the recorder in a room recording others when you are not there. Shame you don't have CCTV in your office too!

Well done. Make sure that you get what was told to you in writing that following an enquiry the allegations were unfounded. They went through a formal process here so you should have your conclusion in writing. An email to the manager recounting what he said and asking for it in writing should suffice. At least if they don't send the outcome in writing you will have the email to refer back to if it is ever needed again.

Write and ask the nature of the meeting you are to be called to next week. I would want to bring a Union rep or someone with a bit of experience of these matters to be present. I know you are not expecting it, but you are advised of something adverse you want a witness and maybe take advice from CAB or solicitor for this. If it's going further then I wouldn't say anything until you get further advice no matter how tempting it may be. The company may also tell you that the grievance has not been upheld and that's the end of the matter. They might like it to be the end of the matter for them, but remember you have other options depending on how things pan out when you return. Keep them open and hope you never have to use them but if you do, they are there and you've stayed prepared. People can get upset by a stance you take professionally but if they then fabricate allegations against you that's malicious. Stay absolutely professional with this woman and if she sends an x on her office texts tell her it is inappropriate. Keep the boundaries. Let us know the outcome next week good luck

In connection with the colleague who has been instructed not to talk to you about this. It is normal in the enquiry/investigation stage until they have been spoken to. This is a difficult one because if the employee receives a direct instruction from the company they could be liable to disciplinary action if they ignore it. However once they have been spoken to, even if there has been a written declaration taken from them in the enquiry, there is no ownership of witnesses and you should advise you manager you may wish to revisit some of the witnesses in relation to matters concerning your defence of the accusations and they should be advised of that. This comes if you are to proceed to a disciplinary hearing in any case and you should be able to speak to who you like although there is no obligation on anyone to cooperate with you. However if someone has given information to one side and refuses to speak and answer questions that may assist the other side, I would argue with a disciplinary panel (and ET) that no weight be given to their evidence as is isn't balanced. ie they have not been asked about events or willing to clarify matters that support you. Grievances, disciplinary processes and Employment tribunals all judge on the balance of probabilities so it's a valid argument for you to use.