'Very sexual' prison guard sacked after she asked colleague to spoon on night shift

A "very sexual" female prison guard was sacked after she asked a male colleague to spoon her on a night shift, a tribunal heard.

Bethany Hayes was fired for sexual harassment after male guards reported her for getting "too close for comfort" at the prison used to detain disgraced footballer Adam Johnson and child killer Sean Mercer.

A tribunal heard that Ms Hayes grabbed a male prison officer’s crotch, squeezed another’s bottom, and "bounced up and down" on another staff member’s lap in view of prisoners and visitors.

Ms Hayes – described as a "a very sexualised person" – would "spread her legs", bend over, and proposition male guards for sex, the tribunal heard.

During one night shift at men"s prison HMP Moorland in Yorkshire, Ms Hayes asked a male officer to "spoon her".

Male guards repeatedly told Ms Hayes to stop harassing them, it was heard.

She was eventually dismissed for gross misconduct but took her employer to a tribunal, claiming her dismissal was unfair.

But now her case of unfair dismissal has now been dismissed by an employment tribunal that was held virtually.

Ms Hayes was a prison officer at HMP Moorland near Doncaster, South Yorks, from the summer of 2018 until she was sacked in May 2025.

In January 2024, her manager Courtney Coulter was "approached by several male members of staff" who claimed that Ms Hayes was "making them feel uncomfortable".

They alleged she would grab or sit on them, and that she "had asked a male member of staff if he wanted to have sex with her in front of other people".

Ms Coulter spoke to Ms Hayes about the complaints the next day.

My Hayes said that she was "just messing around" when she was seen being "very sexual" with the male members of staff, but Ms Coulter told her it was "totally unacceptable".

Ms Coulter went on to have two further conversations about Ms Hayes’ conduct in January, including after another officer said "that he had been touched inappropriately between the legs" by Ms Hayes.

On Valentine’s Day 2024, the prison received a report that Ms Hayes and a male officer had been seen hugging and kissing within the site.

They denied they had kissed, but Ms Hayes admitted she had hugged the officer as she was upset.

After the previous complaints, it was deemed that the hug was "not appropriate or professional", but no action was taken at that time.

However just three months later in May 2024, the prison received further reports about Ms Hayes’ "sexualised" conduct.

The report named two officers that "have been receiving sexual advances from Officer Hayes and this is making them feel uncomfortable at work, to the point where [one] has asked not to be detailed on the same wing as her".

The report further said: “It is suggested that she is a very sexualised person and makes sexualised comments towards male staff and often gets, in their words, too close for comfort”.

It detailed that whilst working nights in March 2024, just a month after she was warned against further inappropriate conduct, Ms Hayes had asked an officer to "spoon her, and had later removed her bra and showed it to him".

It also said that Ms Hayes pinched another officer’s bottom.

The deputy governor of the prison met with Ms Hayes and her union representative and she was placed on restricted duties while an investigation was opened into her conduct.

Outlining the investigation, the tribunal heard: "[Ms Coulter] found [Ms Hayes] to be ‘very sexual’ towards staff and that on one occasion she had walked into an office and found [Ms Hayes] sat on another member of staff’s lap ‘bouncing up and down’ with prisoners and visitors present.

"She also described seeing [Ms Hayes] hugging colleagues in front of prisoners and said that she had spoken to [Ms Hayes] about her behaviour three times."

One officer told the investigation that Ms Hayes spread her legs at him. The tribunal heard: "In December 2023 [Ms Hayes] had come into the office, sat on the desk, opened her legs and said, ‘would you?’ to which [the officer] replied ‘no’.

"[The male officer] said that [Ms Hayes] had then touched his arm, and he told her not to do so."

It was also heard: "That he [the officer] had seen [Ms Hayes] bending over in front of staff and asking [one officer] to ‘slap her bum’, and that [Ms Hayes] had later said to him ‘we should have sex’.

"He also described having witnessed [Ms Hayes] sitting on [the same officer] in the office and bending over in front of male colleagues."

In July 2024, Ms Hayes was suspended on full pay pending the investigation into her "alleged sexual assault / harassment and unprofessional conduct".

She was interviewed in September, and while she admitted to taking her bra off and touching one colleague’s bottom as "just a bit of flirting" or "banter", she denied touching anyone’s crotch or pinching another officer’s bottom.

In another interview in October, she "apologised for her actions and said that they were not meant maliciously".

The matter was progressed to a disciplinary matter and in March 2025 Ms Hayes was dismissed for gross misconduct.

She appealed and was allowed to work while the appeal process was underway, but it was dismissed in May 2025 so she took the Secretary of State for Justice to an employment tribunal.

However Employment Judge Kirsty Ayre threw out her claim of unfair dismissal.

The judge concluded: "The conduct which the [prison service] concluded that [Ms Hayes] was guilty of... included repeated incidents of sexual harassment, one incident of sexual assault (grabbing the crotch area of a male colleague) and repeated unprofessional behaviour.

"[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 in March.

"The claim for unfair dismissal is therefore not well founded. It fails and is dismissed."