SACKED dinnerlady Carol Hill has said she will never return to her previous profession and is now beginning to rebuild her life and move on.

She said while she felt “let down” by the legal system, she had to accept its decision.

On Wednesday, the mum-of-three heard an industrial tribunal found she was not entitled to a payout as a result of being unfairly dismissed from her job at Great Tey Primary School, because she had spoken to the press about it.

The panel had previously announced that, following a hearing in November, she had been unfairly dismissed because the school had not followed the correct procedure. But it later revealed it believed Mrs Hill would still have been dismissed if the right process had been followed. She was not given any compensation, receiving just £352 towards loss of earnings.

Mrs Hill, who has three grandchildren, said: “Someone asked me if I think the law is an ass and I said ‘yes’ because I do.

“I do feel let down, but this has taken up the past two years of my life almost, and I am not an angry person. I have been ill with the worry of it all. I have lost a stone in weight and I look drawn.

“It has aged me ten years. I feel I look older than I am and I don’t suppose that will go away.”

She was sacked after talking to the parents of a seven-year-old girl who had been injured in a playground incident involving other children in the summer of 2009, and then talking to the media about her subsequent suspension. Speaking for the first time since the final result, Mrs Hill admitted she was glad it is over. She said: “I was all set to go to the final hearing, but the night before I rang Mick Mahoney from the union and was in floods of tears and I just thought I could not go through with it.

“I realised I could not go back to my old job. Too much water had gone under the bridge.

“Because I decided not to carry on trying to get my old job back I did not have to go to the hearing,” said Mrs Hill, 62, whose home in Chappel Road, Great Tey, backs on to the school.

“It is hard seeing the children playing because I do miss it. ”

While Mrs Hill accepts the court’s decision not to award her compensation, she said her decision to pursue the case had never been motivated by money.

She said: “I loved that job and I loved the children, and I wanted it back. I also always felt my disciplinary hearing had not been fair, and I was delighted when that was found to be the case by the tribunal.

“I need to get on with my life now, go on holiday and get out and about again.”

She plans to continue with her local cleaning jobs, but will not seek work as a dinnerlady.

She added: “I doubt I would get work again because, whichever way you look at it, I have been found guilty of gross misconduct.”