A Catholic bus driver from Antrim has been awarded almost £80,000 (€117,500) compensation for religious discrimination after being warned he would be shot if the Troubles started again.
Gerald Duffy (42), from Ballymena, Co Antrim, also had a British flag waved in his face during a five-year campaign of harassment that involved threatening telephone calls, damage to his car and unwanted deliveries to his home.
He was awarded £79,161 by a fair employment tribunal after suffering stress and taking his case to the Northern Ireland Equality Commission. "My dreams were shattered from what happened, it will be hard to work for somebody else again," he said.
The tribunal criticised shortcomings in Ulsterbus's investigation into the case, including a lack of official understanding for his concerns.
The litany of abuse at the Ballymena depot, which started in 1995, also included warnings that Mr Duffy could be burned out of the Protestant housing estate where he lived as well as criticism of his decision to wear a crucifix when he was driving a busload of bandsmen through a nationalist protest on the Ormeau Road, Belfast, in 1999.
The tribunal said it was satisfied Ulsterbus cleaner Stephen Neilly said: "They would get home safe by putting [ Mr Duffy] in front where he could wear his crucifix." It accepted that Bobby Colvin, a Protestant fitter at the depot where the victim worked, said: "I wish the f***ing Troubles would start again as you will be the first Fenian that will be shot." The comments were made in the summer of 1998, at a time of sectarian tension in Ballymena linked to the Drumcree stand-off.
The hearing also accepted that Darren Crawford had waved a British flag in the claimant's face and shouted: "Up the f***ing Pope, you f***er".
In December 1999 he was taunted about Sinn Féin education minister Martin McGuinness. The panel said he was told Catholics thought they were taking over everything now.
The allegations were denied. However, after a lengthy hearing in 2004 they were upheld.
Mr Duffy said the bullying intensified after he made his initial complaint, to an Ulsterbus-employed doctor in December 2000.
He had been off with stress from the previous month but now works in a shop. "I was in it to get a result, not for money, to prove that I was right," he added.
"I just wanted someone to believe me and I would like all employers, if someone comes with a complaint, to listen to them and take the proper procedures. It was horrible, I would not want anybody else to go through what I went through."
He was awarded the money for financial loss, injury to feelings and personal injury.
The investigation by Ulsterbus was dubbed "dismissive and high-handed" by three industrial relations experts.
A spokesman for Translink, which now runs Ulsterbus, said it was considering an appeal.