A detective who won a sexual discrimination case against Sussex Police is going back to work for the force.

Pauline Sweeney, a detective constable based in Brighton, said she felt forced to resign from the force because of a dispute about her duties when she returned to work after having a baby.

She left in February after the major crime branch insisted she went on call for one weekend every two months.

A tribunal heard she could not find a nanny to cover the shifts, which run from 6am on Thursdays to 6am on Mondays.

When on call, she would have had to go to the scene of any major crime within two hours. Because her husband also worked for the force, in the tactical firearms unit, he would not always be available to look after their child.

She offered to go on call during weekdays instead but the force insisted she should accept the rota and switch shifts with colleagues if they were inconvenient. Eventually she was told to work on-call shifts or move to another department.

The case was heard at an employment tribunal in Brighton last month. It reached a decision on Tuesday.

It ruled that by telling Ms Sweeney she had to work on call, it had failed to take account of the impact this would have on her as a mother, which amounted to "indirect discrimination". Another hearing is to be held to decide on a compensation package for Ms Sweeney, 37, from Heathfield.

Deputy Chief Constable Joe Edwards said: "We are very pleased this matter has been resolved to the satisfaction of both parties.

"We have responded positively to the tribunal's decision and intend to take lessons from it to ensure future requests from any of our staff to work flexibly are treated with full consideration and with a positive desire to accommodate each individual circumstance as far as we possibly can.

"Our on-call arrangements are vital to the police service, to ensure we have specialist staff available to support officers on duty so we are able to respond effectively to any emergency at any time of the day or night.

"We intend fully to review and update these arrangements in the light of the tribunal's decision."

At the tribunal, Ms Sweeney said she had been surprised and disappointed at the force's lack of compromise. She said: "All I wanted was to be able to remain in my current post without the insistence of a weekend on-call requirement, the one condition I could not comply with. I had worked so hard to gain my position on the major crime branch and I was being told to leave due to what I believed was an old-fashioned approach to primary carers in the work place."

When she returns to the force, Ms Sweeney will work for CID at police headquarters in Lewes on a part-time basis. But a spokesman said she was likely to return to the major crime branch.