A civil servant who lied about a photograph showing her bound and gagged in the office of a government body has lost her case for unfair dismissal.

DeeAnn Fitzpatrick claimed she was subjected to the ordeal for blowing the whistle on a culture of bullying and misogyny at Marine Scotland – but a tribunal has now found that she was dishonest about the timing and the reasons behind the incident.

The image, which went viral at the peak of the #metoo movement, prompted a national outcry and an investigation by the Scottish Government body.

However, the probe found the men involved had “no case to answer”, with the incident being described by some as office “high jinks” which she willingly took part in.

Ms Fitzpatrick went on to be dismissed for gross misconduct over her lies.

An employment tribunal has now backed that decision and rejected her bid to be reinstated by Marine Scotland and receive £500,000 in compensation.

Employment Judge Alexander Kemp said the tribunal concluded that the senior fishery officer “had been dishonest and not simply mistaken” about what happened – not that that was ever her position.

He accepted that the photograph was taken in August 2009, not – as Ms Fitzpatrick claimed – in December 2010 after she reported an alleged assault on another member of staff.

The judge said: “She maintained her position as to its date, and that position is, we concluded, wrong. It follows from that that the suggestion that it was a form of retaliation for her ‘blowing the whistle’, as she put it, cannot be right.”

Ms Fitzpatrick was also dismissed for falsifying emails about the incident and the tribunal found that these were likely “not genuine”.

However, while the judge found in favour of Marine Scotland, he also fired a warning shot to the body over the “kindergarten” culture within its Scrabster office and its handling of the whole affair.

The judgment states: “The claimant had the perception that she had been the victim of a bullying culture for a very long period. Whilst we have made the findings that we have, not all that she said in evidence was, we considered, unreliable or untrue.

“Some of the behaviours at the office were entirely wrong. It was not a kindergarten, but a government office charged with enforcing the law. It was, at least for a material period, dysfunctional, given the evidence of how those working there conducted themselves, and not all steps that were recommended to be taken to remedy that were.”

The tribunal heard that while Ms Fitzpatrick had various opportunities to raise the chair incident with managers or HR professionals, the first time she did so was “fleetingly” when she was facing another unrelated disciplinary in 2012.

It was not mentioned again until she raised an employment tribunal in 2017, alleging harassment.

While it was not part of her original claim in that case, she mentioned the incident while giving evidence and it received widespread media attention, with the image later being published widely in the press and on social media.

This prompted a backlash against the men involved – Reid Anderson and Jody Paske – which Judge Kemp said was “so dreadful” some of it amounted to criminal conduct.

Marine Scotland said Ms Fitzpatrick’s lies caused that abuse, as well as a subsequent police investigation into the men which resulted in Police Scotland taking no further action.

The tribunal heard that Mr Anderson’s wife even wrote to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to tell of the “living hell” they had been suffering and claiming that Ms Fitzpatrick had been harassing and bullying them, including via an online petition.

Ms Fitzpatrick is also said to have upset other co-workers by making “derogatory and offensive” statements about them online, while she also wrote to Ms Sturgeon and said being asked to meet with a manager to discuss the chair incident was like “having to sit with a rapist while he gets away with the crime”.

She was ultimately dismissed for lying about the timing and the nature of the incident after a digital forensic expert said it was beyond doubt that the photo was taken in August 2009.

Lying on oath at the previous tribunal and providing false details to the media also formed part of her disciplinary.

Judge Kemp also rejected her claims for breach of contract and whistleblowing.