A cruise company has used footage that was secretly filmed through a former employee’s window to accuse her of exaggerating the injuries she alleges in her lawsuit against them.
P&O is being sued by Kerry Middleton for nearly £10 million over claims that she will never work again after slipping in an onboard lavatory.
The former executive told a court that she cracked a bone in her neck when she fell while on the giant liner, MV Britannia.
Kerry Middleton, a former human resources director at P&O
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But lawyers for the cruise company have accused Middleton, 52, of exaggerating her injuries, arguing secretly filmed footage showed she retained “completely normal mobility” and appeared “pretty chirpy”.
Middleton told the High Court that she was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder which has left her needing a wheelchair and ended her working life.
She is suing the company where she worked as a human resources boss for £9.7 million.
Judge Tim Moloney was told that Middleton was injured while at a meeting onboard the MV Britannia at the port of Cadiz in 2019.
The 330m-long cruise liner is the flagship of P&O’s fleet. It entered service in 2015 and has about 2,000 cabins over 15 passenger decks.
MV Britannia leaving the port of Southampton
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Middleton argued that she fell badly after slipping on a wet floor in one of the liner’s lavatories. She fractured her neck, which resulted in acute pain — although the court heard that doctors advised initially that her condition should improve within six months.
Middleton was subsequently diagnosed with functional neurological disorder, with symptoms including limb weakness and paralysis, tremors, speech problems, seizures and anxiety and depression.
P&O’s parent company, Carnival, told the High Court last week that it would contest the size of Middleton’s damages claim after producing secretly recorded surveillance footage that the lawyers said undermined her credibility.
James Todd KC, for Carnival, highlighted images that had been secretly shot through the window of Middleton’s home on New Year’s Eve in 2024 while she prepared food for her family.
“We see her moving freely,” said Todd, adding: “She is cheerful and happy with her family. Towards the end of the clip, we see her walking around the kitchen island, doing so freely, without any sign of disability. It shows a woman apparently with completely normal mobility and looking pretty chirpy on top of it.”
Eliot Woolf KC, representing Middleton, told the judge that the severity of her condition meant that she was “primarily a wheelchair user when mobilising”.
The lawyer added that medical experts anticipated “some improvement once she has undergone treatment in a multi-disciplinary unit, but not sufficient for her to return to any form of employment”.
Todd responded that while the company accepted it was liable for the injury, the “triggering episode” for Middleton’s condition was a relatively poor performance grading a short time earlier.
The judge granted permission for Carnival to include the surveillance footage in evidence at a full trial, which will take place at a later date.