Two porters who won an employment tribunal against the Countess of Chester Hospital Trust said their victory shows whistleblowers are "still penalised".

Last month, the trust said its culture had "improved" after the Thirlwall Inquiry found former bosses had "intended to punish" doctors who raised concerns about nurse Lucy Letby.

A tribunal this year found porters John Crayton and Thomas Jones had been "inappropriately interrogated" after raising concerns about the way deceased patients were transported. The pair said the ruling showed they had been "unlawfully victimised".

The trust said it accepted the tribunal's findings but "encourages all colleagues to speak up".

Warning: This article contains distressing details

The porters raised concerns in 2024 that they were having to transport "exposed" bodies that were not in body bags, which they said posed an infection risk.

They said there was no protection for their forearms because of the trust's policy that staff had to be bare below the elbows.

Crayton claimed there was a risk of "psychological damage" from transporting bodies showing "signs of a traumatic death".

The tribunal found the porters had been required to unwrap bodies, which was "contrary to the (hospital trust's) own policy", and had been "overexposed" to the bodies of people whose deaths had occurred outside the hospital in "traumatic circumstances".

However, it was not asked to determine whether the hospital's practices breached health and safety rules or...

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