EQUALITY groups have welcomed the race discrimination ruling in favour of black PC Ronnie Lungu as a step in the right direction for tolerance.

Last week it emerged that senior staff in Wiltshire Police had singled out PC Lungu as a ‘marked man’, intentionally downgrading his scoring in a promotion bid, in favour of his white peers.

Staff were also encouraged to make derogatory comments regarding PC Lungu’s race as part of the process, in a ruling Wiltshire Police have described as very damaging.

Legal teams are currently considering any grounds for appeal, and the top officers in the force have said they are taking the incident very seriously.

Stephen Henderson, the chairman of the Swindon Equality Coalition, said: “The Equality Coalition exists to support the bringing about of a more equitable society, where any sort of illegal discrimination is minimised and challenged out of existence.

“The report of the adjudication of police officer Lungu’s tribunal is encouraging, in that it has ruled against an instance of apparent race discrimination.

“The Equality Coalition readily supports and will offer encouragement to any organisations that sincerely desire and demonstrate motivation to make unfair discrimination a thing of the past.

"The Coalition hopes that all learning and insight from this sad episode will be taken and used to best future effect.”

Wiltshire's Chief Constable Pat Geenty said of the ruling: “Clearly, the issues this raises do need to be carefully considered.

“We continue to work hard to embed our values and behaviours and the code of ethics within the organisation.

“Wiltshire Police will learn lessons from this process and continue to move forward.

“I have no doubt that this judgment will affect members of the black and ethnic minority community who might be considering joining Wiltshire Police.

“I want to reassure the public that Wiltshire Police are committed to increasing diversity in the force so that we can reflect the communities we serve.

“This case was complex and there were a number of points covered.

"With our legal advisors, we are undertaking an assessment of the tribunal’s findings in order to decide whether to appeal any aspects of the judgment.”

“Following this assessment, decisions will be made on what action we may need to take and how we can ensure that lessons are learnt from this case."

“As a force we remain committed to robustly and proportionately tackling inappropriate behaviour in the workplace and supporting those who report wrong doing.

“Over the last few years we have worked hard as a force to ensure we give our staff the right tools whether to deal with wrong doing or managing challenging issues, and we will continue to improve upon this.”