A RELIGIOUS studies teacher who became pregnant by a Bolton priest has won her case for sexual discrimination.

Monika O'Neill had already won a claim for unfair dismissal against the St Thomas More RC School, Bedford after being sacked over the scandal.

But the Bedford tribunal in October 1994 dismissed her claim for sexual discrimination.

Yesterday, the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London ruled dismissal for pregnancy amounts to sex discrimination whatever the surrounding reasons.

The school argued the affair with Bolton priest Father Christopher O'Neill and subsequent birth outside marriage of daughter Jennifer put Mrs O'Neill in a "morally impossible position". Mrs O'Neill said other staff at the school had not been disciplined over their indiscretions and that the priest had been treated very differently and not forced to resign over the affair.

Father O'Neill fled to Dublin when he was first told of the pregnancy but he later resigned the priesthood and the couple married. They have since had two more children.

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