AN Afro-Caribbean soldier has won a claim of racism against the Ministry of Defence after judges ruled his superiors had confused him with the only other black sergeant in his unit.

Sgt Randy Date, who had served in Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, brought the claim after a performance review said he was teaching a training course he was not responsible for.

The course - known as the Right Turn Course - was instead taught by Sgt Masoud Rashid, the only other black sergeant in the training wing of the Military Corrective Training Centre in Colchester.

Sgt Date, who was born in Grenada, was transferred to work at the centre in 2017 after a period of sick leave for post-traumatic stress disorder.

He was given an appraisal report in January 2018 and objected to suggestions he was “badly prepared” and was “was happy to do the minimum expected of him”.

Sgt Date also alleged Flight Lt Taylor, who had written the report, was racist in completing it.

The tribunal found “on the evidence, we are unable to conclude that Flight Lt Taylor made any observations of the claimant’s teaching at all.

“He was unable to specify when the teaching assessment took place, whether the claimant was aware the teaching observation had been undertaken or what the topic of the training was said to be.”

It instead suggested Flight Lt Taylor had relied on what had been relayed to him by Steve Elliott, who was a sergeant major.

The ruling by judge Benjimin Burgher said: “Whilst mistakes can be made, the respondent has not established that race played no part whatsoever in this mistake.

“The claimant’s claim for race discrimination in this regard therefore succeeds.”

However, the tribunal found the content of the appraisal was “actual, if subjective, feedback” and not based on “stereotypical assumptions” of Afro-Caribbean people.

The tribunal also heard of a WhatsApp group conversation in November 2017 when members of the training centre were discussing missing out on Phil Collins tickets.

In the discussion Sgt Date’s absence from work was referenced.

The tribunal found it was reasonable for Sgt Date to have been insulted but said race played no part in the comments.

But it said a “wholly unacceptable and derogatory term” had been used to describe women in the conversation.

A hearing will take place next week ahead of a decision on what remedy Sgt Date is entitled to.