Passport official suspended over 'interrogation' of gay applicant

Disciplinary investigation ordered after man claims he was questioned about his sexual history in front of four-year-old son



The Home Office has suspended a passport official and ordered a disciplinary investigation after the employee subjected a gay father-of-two to a lengthy interrogation about his sexual history and the details of his adoptions in front of the man's four-year-old son.

During what was meant to be a routine interview – the final stage in the application for his passport – Randall Cole was last month questioned for half an hour about his sexual practices, including whether he had ever had sex with a woman, and forced to discuss the terms of the adoptions and his relationship with the biological mother. He was also asked whether his children were "confused" by their family – as the child sat on his lap.

Cole says the "clearly homophobic" questioning left him shaking and feeling "violated and dirty" and wondering, amid the widespread delays with 400,000 people waiting for their passport, whether the system is "so broken that it allows people to do and say whatever they want without fear of repercussion".
Randall Cole Randall Cole, who became a British citizen this year.

American-born Cole, 44, a charity worker who became a British citizen on 1 May and who married British human resources manager Stuart Wales, 42, in California in 2001, went to the passport office in Chelmsford, Essex, expecting a "straightforward interview".

The Home Office website states that applicants will simply "be asked to confirm facts about yourself that someone trying to steal your identity may not know".

But in the midst of an open plan office, the official then "launched immediately into personal things".

"I told her I am here with my son Samuel and that he has an older brother [Benjamin, eight] but that my husband is looking after him – and when I used the term husband that's when you could see something immediately changed in her. She began to fixate on questions about my family.

"She said: 'Is this your biological child?' And when I said no she said: 'Is it your partner's biological child?' And when I explained that we are family through adoption she said: 'Oh, so that's why you're able to have children.'" Cole tried to distract his son with a box of Tic Tacs.

"She then asked 'What do the children call their birth mother?' and 'What does the birth mother think about all of us?' and 'Aren't the children confused by it all?'"

Cole attempted to explain that if Samuel's birth mother was there and the boy fell over he would run to Cole. But the officer "sighed, shook her head and looked bemused".

"Then she said: 'What do you think people make of you when they see you walking down the street with your kids?'"

The official, he says, went on to ask about the birth mother: "Do they call her mum? Why didn't she want to keep her children?" Concerned about the effect of this on his son, Cole felt compelled to again explain things to him, in front of her.

"I'm talking to Samuel, even though he knows this, saying: 'You came out of Emily's tummy but Daddy and Papa are your parents.' At this point I felt I was failing my son, failing to keep him safe," he says.

When Cole mentioned that he works part-time, he says, the Home Office employee interrupted: "Oh, so you're like the housewife." The grilling reached another nadir, however, when matters moved on to Cole's sexual history.

"She said: 'You must have had relationships with women in the past though?'" At this, Cole stopped her.

"She became indignant and said: 'We can ask anything we want, regardless of whether or not it makes you feel uncomfortable.'

"But it was clear she was trying to humiliate me – a way to get me to say if I'd had sex with a woman. She said I could refuse to answer but my lack of response would be noted and then proceeded to try to get me to answer, through a variety of questions, whether I or Stuart had previously been sexually active heterosexually." He has filed a written complaint to the Home Office.

"I have never felt so violated or humiliated. Her questioning was clearly homophobic, designed to put me in my place. We moved here because of the promise of a tolerant society."

Such Home Office interviews are recorded as a matter of routine. It is understood that the recording has been reviewed by more senior Home Office officials.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Intrusive questions about someone's sexuality as part of an interview would be inappropriate and is not a reflection of our policy.

"The member of staff in question has been suspended and a disciplinary investigation is now under way."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/13/passport-official-suspended-gay-man-interrogation

FGS!!!!!

He should lose his job tbh.
Unless there was something questionable on this mans application then he had no,right to be subjected to that kind of treatment!

Absolutely disgusting, even more so that his son was right there. What a bitch!

eddie wrote:He should lose his job tbh.
Unless there was something questionable on this mans application then he had no,right to be subjected to that kind of treatment!

it was a she.

and I agree She should lose her job.

veya_victaous wrote:

eddie wrote:He should lose his job tbh.
Unless there was something questionable on this mans application then he had no,right to be subjected to that kind of treatment!

it was a she.

and I agree She should lose her job.

(It was late lol)

Well the passport office is in big disarray at the moment!

That is an absolutely shocking way to treat anyone and no-one should have to sit there and take that sort of crap from a public official.
I'd have walked away at the first sign of that sort of questioning or at least have demanded that their senior manager be called to witness what was was going on.
Easy to sit and say that But I think that's what I would have done.

In front of his 4 year old!

shocking to say the least.

I shall bookmark this thread for further discussion once a hearing has taken place (if it makes the news).

Good for you, everyone else had the decency to condemn the action.

Sassy wrote:Good for you, everyone else had the decency to condemn the action.

Condemn what action?

Nothing has been confirmed Sassy.

He's got a good memory hasn't he? He was able to quote exactly what she said.

Should never have been suspended.

I condemn the person who sanctioned the suspension.

Cobra wrote:Should never have been suspended.

Well it's normal practice in most industries to suspend - as long as a thorough investigation takes place and it is made clear if the allegations are found to be false or impossible to prove that he is innocent then i see no problem.

No wonder the passport office is in the state its in with morons like that working there

Irn Bru wrote:That is an absolutely shocking way to treat anyone and no-one should have to sit there and take that sort of crap from a public official.
I'd have walked away at the first sign of that sort of questioning or at least have demanded that their senior manager be called to witness what was was going on.
Easy to sit and say that But I think that's what I would have done.

I think I would have done that too. Do they have video cameras recording these interviews?

The truth should come out Christie:

Such Home Office interviews are recorded as a matter of routine.

BigAndy9 wrote:The truth should come out Christie:

Such Home Office interviews are recorded as a matter of routine.

I thought as much Big Andy, thanks.

Nems wrote:No wonder the passport office is in the state its in with morons like that working there

I'm waiting for my sons new passport actually, we fly out the day after it runs out   

eddie wrote:

Nems wrote:No wonder the passport office is in the state its in with morons like that working there

I'm waiting for my sons new passport actually, we fly out the day after it runs out   

I nearly did that with daughters had to go to Liverpool and get a same day one. Cost more than the bloody flight!

Nems wrote:

eddie wrote:


I'm waiting for my sons new passport actually, we fly out the day after it runs out   

I nearly did that with daughters had to go to Liverpool and get a same day one. Cost more than the bloody flight!

Really?? Bloody hell.
I'm not sure they let you do that in the London office anymore?

eddie wrote:

Nems wrote:

I nearly did that with daughters had to go to Liverpool and get a same day one. Cost more than the bloody flight!

Really?? Bloody hell.
I'm not sure they let you do that in the London office anymore?

Probably wasn't supposed to do it. I do remember having to do a lot of pleading!

Nems wrote:

eddie wrote:

Really?? Bloody hell.
I'm not sure they let you do that in the London office anymore?

Probably wasn't supposed to do it. I do remember having to do a lot of pleading!

Did you do this?   :askissas: 

eddie wrote:

Nems wrote:

Probably wasn't supposed to do it. I do remember having to do a lot of pleading!

Did you do this?   :askissas: 

And a bit of this

Nems wrote:

eddie wrote:


Did you do this?   :askissas: 

And a bit of this  

Yep. Works every time   

eddie wrote:

Nems wrote:

And a bit of this  

Yep. Works every time