By JULIA RAVENSCROFT

A FORMER governor at Risley Prison is taking the service to an industrial tribunal over alleged victimisation.

Kathleen Dawson, aged 57, who lives in Sale, is on paid leave while she awaits a date for the tribunal after 25 years in the prison service.

She is claiming victimisation under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 alleging the prison service tried to subject her to 'compulsory retirement' against her wishes.

It is claimed she inquired about early retirement but only if the terms were suitable.

Mrs Dawson took the prison service to a tribunal in 1999 after claiming she was left without a job following the closure of the women's wing of the prison where she was a governor.

She was awarded £6,000 in compensation and continued to work at Risley as Head of Programmes.

Mrs Dawson said: "It has been a very unhappy period. People might think that I'm some sort of mischievous, frivolous person but it's very difficult to get to the tribunal stage."

A spokesman for the prison service said: "A member of the prison service staff has brought a case of victimisation against the prison service and the application has been passed on to our treasury solicitors and they are dealing with the claim."

Mrs Dawson has spent the past 25 years working in prisons including Holloway and Strangeways, Manchester.

She has also embarked on a career as a gritty novelist under the pen name Maggie Marshall and has just had her second novel, All the World's a Cage launched in London by Lord Hoyle of Warrington and Sir David Ramsbottom, Chief Inspector of Prisons.

The book, which is set in the fictional Steele Road Women's Prison, has been published by Waterside Press and is available from leading book shops.