SITTING in her smart east London apartment, Mary Fogarty (36) appears to be a quiet and unassuming woman. She is a career woman, yet for the past eight months she has been unemployed, forced to live off state benefit. During that period, her lawyers were preparing to sue the United States government for victimisation.

"All I want is a job. My career is shattered and the Americans are trying to brush it under the carpet. Why should I be the sacrificial lamb? It is not an easy thing to be fighting, it is disgraceful it has gone this far. I just want to get on with my life," she says.

Ms Fogarty's problems began shortly after she started work in 1993 as an administrative assistant with the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS), a subsidiary of the CIA, in London. She was well qualified, having worked for eight years in the US embassy in her home city of Dublin and had been security vetted.

However, within weeks of her appointment, the senior administrative assistant, Martin Thomas, began making suggestive comments and questioning her about her sex life, according to Ms Fogarty.

"He kept asking me if I was a Catholic, whether I was a virgin and saying that he liked big women. It sounds so stupid now but I didn't know what to do. I don't have brothers and I wasn't use to men behaving like this," she says.

Initially, Ms Fogarty tried to ignore his behaviour. But when Mr Thomas, who is English and a father of three, allegedly licked her ear and asked "What's pink and likes oral sex?" she complained to her boss.

"It took a lot of nerve to tell him. I went all red, he bust himself laughing and said `Now you know the colour of Martin'. They were bosom pals. It was all boys together," she says.

From then on, Ms Fogarty claims, she was "basically frozen out" of the office. Mr Thomas was never disciplined, and in March 1995 she was sacked because she was unable to work "agreeably" with him. "I was marched out of the building like a criminal," she recalls.

After taking legal advice, Ms Fogarty sued the US government for unfair dismissal, claiming sex discrimination on the basis that she was sacked because she complained about the sexual harassment. Last May, an industrial tribunal in London unanimously agreed, upheld her allegations against Mr Thomas and awarded her £12,000 sterling in damages.

Despite this victory and the tribunal's damning criticism of the US government's failure to properly investigate her claims against Mr Thomas, Ms Fogarty has not worked since. Although she has applied for nine jobs at the US embassy, she has had only one interview and believes she is being victimised for standing up for herself.

"I was applying for jobs and getting nowhere. My career is shattered. Why should I be out on the street with all my years of experience? All I want is to be working. I have worked for the US government since I was 21. This is my reputation, I have got to get justice. I am entitled to it," she says.

BUT this week, in what is believed to be an unprecedented move, Ms Fogarty was forced to drop her victimisation case against the government after its embassy in London claimed diplomatic immunity. The decision was apparently sanctioned in Washington.

Lawyers for the embassy stated: "Diplomatic immunity was not taken in the first sexual discrimination action because it was a domestic issue. In the second case, we claimed sovereign immunity to prevent a foreign court telling the US government who it can and cannot hire."

However, Ms Fogarty is prepared for a fight. Such was the outrage at the decision that Liberty, the British civil rights organisation, intends to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights, and her solicitor, Lawrence Davies, is considering suing the US government in Washington.

John Wadham, the director of Liberty, said Ms Fogarty's case raised "important and fundamental issues" on human rights as the embassy's stance is in breach of Article of the European Convention, by denying her the right to a fair trial.

"As a result of the sovereign immunity, she hasn't had her case tested in any court or tribunal. Everyone is entitled to a fair trial. Everyone should have the same rights, and the issue is that nobody should be able to take that away," he explained.

Mr Davies hopes to begin legal proceedings in America next week. "It is scandalous that the perpetrators of this discrimination are prepared to hide behind the US flag. It would be most satisfactory to sue the American government in their own backyard, I am just waiting on legal advice before I launch the action," he says.

Not surprisingly, the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, could hardly ignore the row during her visit to London on Wednesday. A spokesman for the US embassy in London admitted that Ms Albright was aware of the case but stressed that she would not comment publicly on it.

The spokesman denied suggestions that Ms Fogarty would never work at the embassy again. "No, that is not the case, she has current applications in and they will continue to be reviewed."

For Ms Fogarty, the fight for justice continues. Her friends in the US embassy continue to inform her of any vacancies, and she remains optimistic that it will all soon be over.