A NURSE dubbed 'a bigot' and compared to Hitler by colleagues has won the right to compensation after NHS bosses made only 'limp and ineffectual' efforts to protect him.

Edward Bone, known as Eddie, was greeted with the words 'hello Adolf' by a fellow worker and became the focus of suspicions of 'creeping crypto fascism' while working at the North East Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

He was 'the leading light' in the Workers of England Union (WEU), a small trade union which was not recognised by the trust.

Tensions between Mr Bone and representatives of giant union Unison festered and he was 'marginalised' and 'socially ostracised', Appeal Court judges heard.

And matters reached a head in 2010 when he stood as an English Democrats party general election candidate in Colchester.

A Unison representative suggested that the WEU was linked to fascism and the British National Party, said Lord Justice Bean today.

A nursing colleague called Mr Bone a bigot and Unison's man was not made to apologise after the 'hello Adolf' quip.

A Unison branch official sent an email expressing concerns about the 'creeping crypto fascism' of WEU.

Mr Bone's response was to take his complaints against the trust to an Employment Tribunal, which found he had been persecuted for his trade union activities.

The tribunal said the trust had 'wanted a quiet life on the union front' and was anxious to 'placate' Unison representatives.

The trust said it wanted to 'remain neutral', but the tribunal described management's failure to protect Mr Bone as a "dereliction of duty".

The "weak and lamentably ineffective conduct" of trust bosses was designed to "eliminate" or "marginalise" the influence of Mr Bone and the WEU.

The tribunal's ruling was overturned by the Employment Appeal Tribunal in 2014, but Mr Bone appealed.

Upholding his challenge today, Lord Justice Bean said: "The trust subjected Mr Bone to detriment by their deliberate failure to act.

"They did so for the main purpose of preventing or deterring him from taking part in the activities of the WEU".

The man who made the 'hello Adolf' comment was never told to apologise and never disciplined before the left the trust.

The amount of compensation the trust must now pay Mr Bone has yet to be assessed, but it is likely to be substantial.