A policewoman who developed a phobia about work after being the victim of sexual discrimination is finally due to find out how much compensation she will receive from Sussex Police.

Barbara Lynford, 40, a firearms officer at Gatwick Airport, won her legal fight at a Brighton employment tribunal two years ago.

But a remedy hearing to decide on the amount of compensation she deserves is only now taking place.

PC Lynford, from Lewes, remains a serving police officer although she has not worked since August 2005, when she was signed off work by her GP as she was suffering from work-related stress.

At the remedy hearing the tribunal heard Miss Lynford is suffering from depression and has developed a phobic anxiety disorder with a specific phobia about working for the police.

Doctors concluded there is no prospect of her returning to work for Sussex Police or any police force.

During the original hearing in 2007, Miss Lynford claimed she suffered taunts and verbal abuse by male colleagues while serving at Gatwick, where she was the only woman in a team of 18 men.

Miss Lynford, who joined the force in 1993, said she had been driven to ill-health and hounded from her job by bullying and sexist colleagues.

She claimed fellow officers made comments about her breasts and called her names. She was also upset by topless pictures of women in magazines left around the station.

During the hearing there were also allegations that armed officers at Gatwick routinely faked anti-terrorism patrol reports, took sick days when they were well and left guns unattended.

The tribunal was told that leaving weapons lying around was a "doughnut offence", punishable by having to buy cakes or doughnuts for the rest of the team.

Miss Lynford told the hearing that officers in her team went to sleep in the van while on duty at night and used their radios to alert each other to attractive holidaymakers while on patrol around the airport.

She said: "In all my life I have never been treated as badly as I have been at Gatwick."

The tribunal panel upheld three claims of sexual discrimination.

Miss Lynford served at Haywards Heath and Hove before transferring to Gatwick in 2002 to work in the firearms unit where she was trained to use a self-loading pistol and an MP5 sub-machine gun.

The hearing continues.