'Very sexual' South Yorkshire prison guard sacked after grabbing male officer’s crotch
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
A female prison officer described as “very sexual” was sacked after she grabbed a male officer’s crotch. squeezed another’s bottom and "bounced up and down" on another staff member’s lap.
Bethany Hayes was fired from HMP Moorland in Doncaster for sexual harassment after male guards reported her for getting "too close for comfort.”
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.
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, held virtually.
She was a prison officer the Doncaster jail from the summer of 2018 until she was sacked in May 2025.
In January 2024, her manager 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 Hayes said that she was "just messing around" when she was seen being "very sexual" with the male members of staff, but was told it was "totally unacceptable” with one officer asking not to work with 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.
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’.
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’.
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.
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."