Nanny alleges Heather Mills mistreated all staff

Nanny alleges Heather Mills mistreated all staff
Nanny alleges Heather Mills mistreated all staff (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Heather Mills' former nanny has told an employment tribunal that she made all her staff's lives a misery, but she was the only one prepared to speak out. Sara Trumble, 26, alleges that Heather forced her to say positive things about her to a film crew and made her work long hours without any extra pay. She also claims her former employer made her feel uncomfortable by moaning to her about ex-husband Sir Paul McCartney and was unsympathetic towards her when she went though a difficult pregnancy, forcing her to accompany her on trips abroad. During cross-examination from Heather's solicitor, Caroline Crampton-Thomas, on the second day of the hearing, Ms Trumble said: "I wasn't the only person who felt that at that time. It's just that nobody else will stand up. I decided to take action and fight this for myself." Ms Trumble, who was paid £260 a week to look after Beatrice, now six, said she was close to former model Heather when she began working for her in April 2004, but she became rude and bad-tempered after she split from the former Beatle. At the hearing, Heather kept angrily walking over to speak in her solicitor's ear, at one point prompting her sister, Fiona, to tell her to sit down. Ms Trumble, of Westfield, admitted she asked Heather to be godmother to her daughter Lily when she was born in September 2007. She is seeking compensation from Mills on the grounds of sex discrimination and unfair dismissal and also claims she suffered changes to her employment terms following her maternity leave.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.