A woman whose co-worker wife tried to kill their boss over a rota dispute is set to win at least £14,000 after an employment tribunal found she was unfairly dismissed by the NHS
An ambulance worker who was sacked after her wife tried to murder their boss with a hammer is in line for a £14,000 payday after winning a claim against the NHS.
Paula Smith’s wife Stacey subjected supervisor Michala Morton to a brutal attack at her home after the couple became convinced she was denying them time off to spend together. She was then sacked by the NHS trust she worked for, despite police finding she had nothing to do with Stacey’s attack.
Paula, who was 56 at the time of her sacking, is now in line for compensation of at least £14,000 after an employment tribunal found she had been unfairly dismissed.
The tribunal, held in Manchester, heard that Paula worked for the North West Ambulance Service Trust and was an Ambulance Care Assistant based at the Oldham Ambulance Station at the time of the incident
She had been working in patient transport for 26 years and was married to Stacey, who she worked with in patient transport. The tribunal heard that Paula and Stacey “wanted to work together” and “have their rotas arranged so that they could have their time off work together” – but this “became something of an issue” and led them to believe Michala was being “obstructive” towards them.
In December 2021 they raised a grievance against Ms Morton, which the tribunal found was never formally dealt with. The Smith couple raised another grievance in September 2022.
The tribunal heard that on the morning of November 11, 2023, Stacey attacked Michala Morton with a hammer outside her home in the early morning.
Paula “played no part in this attack” and woke up to find that her wife had left the house, it was heard, only learning of what had happened after her wife had been arrested.
She was herself arrested “in relation to allegations of harassment and threats to kill Ms Morton” and released on bail under conditions which meant she couldn’t go to work.
Paula was suspended on full pay, and in March the following year Greater Manchester Police decided not to pursue a criminal case against her, lifting her bail conditions.
A formal hearing about her employment, originally called while she was bail, was scheduled to take place the week before Stacey’s trial in April 2024. The Assistant Director of Compliance, Ian Stringer, said during the meeting that the trust would consider “the feasibility of your continued employment” due to the “seriousness of the allegations you were arrested for” and how that relates to trust and confidence in you and how that might be managed if the decision was to continue with your employment.” Paula confirmed that she would accept support from the trust to be redeployed elsewhere.
After the meeting, Mr Stringer wrote in a letter that Paula did not have the “requisite skills” and said “it is difficult to assure ourselves that you had no notion of your wife’s intentions”.
But the letter was never sent to Paula, and she only found out she had been dismissed after Ms Morton referred to her as an ‘ex-employee’ during the trial. She was formally informed of her dismissal by a different letter on April 25, 2024. In this letter, Mr Stringer said: “You made it clear that you did not condone the actions of your wife. However, your ongoing association with this incident by your arrest means that if you returned to your role, or an alternative role, patients, staff and the public would not have the required degree of trust in the service and those who operate it; put simply, your known arrest and association with someone who has been charged with attempted murder of your operations manager undermines that trust.”
He went on to say that even if he could find a suitable role for her, she would be “required to engage with other staff and [he] could not be assured that this would be appropriate”. Paula appealed against her dismissal.
In July 2024, Paula shared a post on Facebook which accused Ms Morton of “ruining my life and my marriage”, adding: “I thought things couldn’t get any worse, 26 years of service down the drain and now 9 years of my life wasted”.
The appeal against her dismissal was rejected, and her wife’s trial was re-heard in September 2024 after the initial trial had to be stopped because a lawyer fell ill.
Stacey Smith was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment, with an extended licence period of five years. She has since ended her relationship with Paula, the tribunal heard.
Employment Judge Paul Holmes found that Paula was dismissed because she was “married to a fellow employee who had attempted to murder another fellow employee” and had been arrested and subject to bail conditions before being discharged with no further action. The judge said Paula’s “only involvement was to be married to Stacey Smith”, and that “the very fact” of her arrest “appears to have sealed her fate in the eyes of Ian Stringer”. He continued: “So the [Trust], its staff, and possibly, but rather remotely, members of the public knew, or may know, that [Paula] was married to the woman who violently assaulted Ms Morton. “Put bluntly – “So what?”, the Tribunal is inclined, with respect, to ask.”
The judge said that the Trust “lost the potentially safe ground for [Paula]’s dismissal once she was released from her bail and was no longer under police investigation”, and that process appeared “intended to ensure her dismissal before she may have given evidence in her wife’s trial”. Mr Holmes said the fact that Paula’s relationship with Ms Morton had broken down was not a good enough reason to dismiss her until other options had been explored. The tribunal found that Paula had been unfairly dismissed, and the exact amount of compensation Paula will receive may be decided at a later date.
