UK Tribunal Rejects IT Worker’s Appeal Over ‘Prophetic Dream’ Messages to Colleague

A former UK-based IT worker has lost his legal challenge against his dismissal after repeatedly telling a female colleague she had appeared to him in prophetic dreams before they ever met, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Elrich Daudet, who worked as a senior computer analyst at Computacenter (UK) Ltd, was dismissed for gross misconduct in December 2022 after sending the woman romantic messages and poems inspired by what he described as divine or prophetic dreams.

According to tribunal evidence, Daudet believed the colleague had first appeared to him months earlier as the muse for his poetry and songwriting. One of the poems likened her fragrance to “flowers in the Garden of Eden”, while other messages expressed his conviction that their meeting had been foretold in his dreams.

The attention was not welcomed. The colleague later complained to another employee that Daudet was “doing her head in”, prompting an internal investigation by the company. The probe ended with his dismissal for gross misconduct.

Daudet subsequently took the matter to an employment tribunal, alleging unfair dismissal as well as race and religious belief discrimination. After those claims were rejected in 2024, he appealed, arguing that his belief was not limited to his personal experiences but reflected a wider conviction that dreams can predict future events. His lawyer, Chinonso Ijezie, also challenged the tribunal’s finding that the colleague had been alarmed by the messages.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal, however, upheld the earlier decision, ruling that Daudet’s belief in prophetic dreams did not qualify as a protected philosophical belief under UK equality law and finding no basis to overturn his dismissal.