A female prison officer at HMP Moorland has lost her employment tribunal claim after the prison sacked her for sexually harassing male colleagues.
Bethany Hayes claimed unfair dismissal. Employment Judge Kirsty Ayre rejected the claim.
Ms Hayes worked as an officer at Moorland from the summer of 2018. Male officers there reported that her behaviour had become highly sexualised and left them uncomfortable.
The tribunal heard that she grabbed one male officer’s crotch and squeezed another’s bottom. It also heard that she bounced up and down on a third officer’s lap while prisoners and visitors could see. According to evidence at the hearing, she would spread her legs, bend over and proposition male colleagues. It was also claimed that, on one night shift, she asked a male officer to spoon her, then removed her bra and showed it to him.
Male staff had repeatedly asked her to stop, the tribunal heard. In January 2024, several men went to her manager to complain that she made them uncomfortable. They said she had asked a male colleague, in front of other people, whether he wanted to have sex with her. Ms Hayes told her supervisor she had only been messing around. The supervisor told her the behaviour was totally unacceptable.
At an interview in September 2024, Ms Hayes admitted removing her bra and touching one colleague’s bottom. She described this as “just a bit of flirting [or] banter”. She denied touching anyone’s crotch or pinching another officer’s bottom. At a further interview in October, she apologised and said she had not meant any harm.
Moorland dismissed her for gross misconduct in March 2025. She appealed through the prison’s own procedures, but that appeal failed in May 2025. She then took her case to an employment tribunal.
In rejecting the claim, Judge Ayre said Ms Hayes’s conduct had “included repeated incidents of sexual harassment, one incident of sexual assault (grabbing the crotch area of a male colleague) and repeated unprofessional behaviour”.
The judge added: “[Ms Hayes] should have been in no doubt that sexual behaviour in the workplace was not appropriate. Despite this however, she continued to engage in it even after receiving the formal advice and guidance.”
HMP & YOI Moorland is a Category C men’s prison in Yorkshire and the Humber.
