CAROL Saunders, the Vale prison officer who won a landmark discrimination case against Long Lartin, is now having to fight an appeal.

The 41-year-old successfully argued last October at a tribunal that it was discriminatory to force female wardens to conduct rub-down searches on male prisoners because male officers are not expected to do the same to women in female jails.

Now she has heard that the prison service has been given leave to appeal against the employment tribunal's ruling.

Mrs Saunders, from Tewkesbury, who has since left the prison service through stress, said: "What it means to me is the further dragging on of the issue.

"I refused to rub down and search a male prisoner because I didn't feel able to touch a member of the opposite sex in such an intimate way."

So far she said her fight has cost her £14,000 in legal fees and about the same again in loss of earnings.

She said all pleas for financial help, including those to her own union, the Prisoner Officers' Association, have fallen on deaf ears.

Mrs Saunders added: "Both sides of an Employment Tribunal are expected to fund themselves - it isn't like a criminal law where if you win your case you claim costs from the other side."

The prison service's right to appeal was won on a technical point following a hearing on May 6.

They have argued a correct comparison for sexual discrimination in this case would be a male officer refusing to rub down a male inmate. The service refused to comment further on the case because of ongoing legal proceedings.