The Irish TV producer who was verbally and physically attacked by Jeremy Clarkson is suing the former Top Gear host and the BBC for more than £100,000 for racial discrimination and personal injury.
Oisín Tymon’s lawyers and the BBC attended the Central London Employment Tribunal on today for a preliminary hearing about the action, the Guardian reports.
Clarkson, who in July signed up to launch a Top Gear rival on Amazon’s TV service along with former co–hosts James May and Richard Hammond, was not required to appear.
Clarkson’s fracas with Tymon, over the failure to be served a steak at the end of a day filming Top Gear in Yorkshire, ultimately resulted in Clarkson’s departure from the BBC.
A BBC investigation led by BBC Scotland boss Ken MacQuarrie found that Clarkson had subjected the 36–year–old Irishman to a 30–second physical attack after a sustained verbal tirade.
MacQuarrie concluded that Tymon was “subject to an unprovoked physical and verbal attack” by Clarkson, during which he was “struck, resulting in swelling and bleeding to his lip”.
Tony Hall, the director general of the BBC, said Clarkson had subjected an “innocent party [to] a physical altercation accompanied by sustained and prolonged verbal abuse of an extreme nature”.
Most cases do not get as far as as an employment tribunal hearing.
If the BBC and Tymon’s lawyers fail to settle the greivance then next step will be a full employment tribunal, heard and adjucated by three members, which would take place in the new year.