An NHS trust has paid out £187,000 in damages after an employment tribunal found it harassed seven nurses by requiring them to share a changing room with a transgender woman.

Judges ruled County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust created a "hostile environment" for nurses who objected to Rose Henderson, who was born male and identifies as a woman, using the single-sex changing rooms.

One of the claimants, Bethany Hutchison, said the nurses raised their concerns to protect women but were instead subjected to "pressure and intimidation".

The trust's CEO Steve Russell said its approach should have been different and he regretted the "impact this has had on the colleagues involved".

Hutchison, who is president of the Darlington Nursing Union, said the outcome was a "vindication of our stand for dignity, privacy, and common sense".

"We hope it ensures that no woman is ever again made to feel unsafe in her workplace for speaking the truth," she said.