Dolly creator Wilmut is cleared of bully charge

Published on Wednesday 23 August 2006 12:42

THE scientist who created Dolly the sheep has been cleared by an Edinburgh employment tribunal of racist bullying of a colleague.

Prof Ian Wilmut, 63, was accused by colleague Dr Priam Singh, 45, of making his life a misery and driving him out of his 40,000 a year job.

Dr Singh sued Prof Wilmut as well as Roslin Institute, Midlothian, and its operators the Biotechnological Sciences Research Council for 1 million.

The molecular biologist claimed that Prof Wilmut denied him resources because of his Indian background and attempted to steal his scientific ideas.

His claim of race discrimination was yesterday rejected, but the BSRC faces paying out up to 60,000 in damages after the tribunal backed his allegation of unfair dismissal.

Since his team created Dolly, the first animal cloned from an adult cell, in 1997, Prof Wilmut has become one of the world's most famous scientists.

In his testimony at the tribunal Prof Wilmut admitted he neither developed the technology nor conducted the vital experiments, despite appearing as lead author on the paper about Dolly.

Under questioning, Wilmut said that his colleague, Professor Keith Campbell, deserved "66 per cent" of the credit for the work.

Prof Wilmut will be in charge of a new 35m centre for stem cell research based at Edinburgh University.