AN EX-POLICEMAN who says poor handling of a complaint against him forced him from his job faces yet another chapter in his marathon fight for compensation.

Godfrey Reilly-Cooper,50, of Farmmeadow Lane, Irby, Wirral, retired because of ill health after 20 years in the Merseyside force.

He says the anxiety and depression he suffered was caused "in the execution of his duty".

His claim for an "injury on duty" award was finally backed by a doctor in December last year. But yesterday, Mr Justice Stanley Burnton ruled the doctor's decision contained "errors of law" and

overturned it. Mr Reilly-Cooper's case will now have to reconsidered by yet another doctor, or even a board of medical assessors depending on the view taken by Home Secretary David Blunkett, the judge said.

Mr Reilly-Cooper, then a sergeant, had been asked to carry out a performance review of a civilian worker in 1997. He twice returned a verdict of "negative" against her and, in February 1998, she submitted a formal grievance, suggesting he had "bullied, harassed and humiliated her", said the judge.

In the course of the grievance procedure, she accused him of "inappropriately" touching her thigh a year before.

He described the accusation as "malicious, wholly false and vindictive".

He went off sick in May, 1999, and launched his own grievance procedure on the basis that the decision to transfer him "implied that he had been guilty of the alleged inappropriate behaviour". He took Merseyside Police to an employment tribunal alleging sex discrimination, but the tribunal ruled in favour of the Police Authority, said the judge.

He returned to work on reduced hours in April 2000 but the following year retired, citing depression and anxiety.