A long-serving Grimsby Telegraph sub-editor who claimed pressure of work triggered a mental breakdown has failed in an Appeal Court bid for compensation.

Barry Green, who joined the Telegraph as a 17-year-old cub reporter in 1958, argued that bosses should have spotted the signs of an impending breakdown and done more to support him.

An earlier claim for damages against Grimsby and Scunthorpe Newspapers Ltd was dismissed by a county court judge last March, a decision which has now been upheld by the Appeal Court.

Barry’s case was one of a number related to work stress to be considered by the court, and was considered of such importance that the nation’s most senior civil judge – the Master of the Rolls, Lord Phillips – presided.

Julian Matthews, on behalf of Barry, said that he had given “express written notice” to his employers that his workload was affecting his health shortly before he suffered a breakdown in June 1999.

He claimed that instead of acting sensitively the newspaper’s then editor, Peter Moore, had a week later “torn him off a strip” in front of other editorial staff for taking a tea break.

Grimsby and Scunthorpe Newspapers Ltd denies the former sub-editor’s claim and was exonerated from any liability to pay him damages.

Lord Justice Scott Baker, sitting with Lord Phillips and Lord Justice Tuckey, said the Appeal Court was “unimpressed” by arguments that the newspaper should have “reasonably foreseen” Barry’s impending breakdown.