A Northern Irish prison officer has succeeded in most of his unfair dismissal, race and religious discrimination case after his prison governor harassed him over family links to the IRA.
His dismissal stemmed from an incident involving the use of force on a prisoner.
The claimant, Sean Gough, who had worked as a senior guard at HMP Bedford from 2016 before becoming a supervising officer in February 2021, was sent texts by governor Adam Megicks alleging ties with the terrorist organisation.
Mr Gough was dismissed on 30 November 2021 for gross misconduct. His claims were of “ordinary” unfair dismissal, direct race discrimination, harassment related to race and religion, and discrimination on the grounds of religion.
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The claimant identified his race as Northern Irish and his religion as Catholic.
Mr Gough said he became “the subject of bullying of a racial, religious and cultural nature”. He added that Mr Megicks “was extremely interested in the British military and loved to ask questions and talk about it. He was fascinated by my family’s background”.
In the spring of 2021, governor Megicks sent a “racist and inflammatory” video to Mr Gough, “linking him to the IRA”. It showed Mr Gough’s uncle being shot and killed during the Troubles.
In his grievance, Mr Gough also said he had been “humiliated” by governor Megicks at a formal probation interview in December 2020.
The tribunal heard: “I was humiliated for my culture, language and race when asked by governor Megicks to say ‘motorcycle helmet’ in an Irish accent during the interview.”
The claim, according to the employment tribunal, primarily revolved around the claimant’s summary dismissal on 30 November 2021. The incident that formed the basis of the dismissal took place on 20 July 2021, in which the claimant was involved in a “use of force” incident with a prisoner. The incident was recorded and understood by all as being an incident “at height”; at height being understood by all concerned to mean “off the ground”.
HMP Bedford leaders subjected him to gross misconduct proceedings, claiming he “rugby tackled” a prisoner when he tried to climb up netting, after hearing him suggesting he was going to kill himself. A few weeks before the incident, the prisoner caused alarm when he had made a noose in his cell.
Union rep
Prison authorities also approached Mr Gough’s union representative twice, and told him the case wasn’t going well for Mr Gough and that he should resign rather than go through the hearing because he wouldn’t want some grievances and text messages dredged up. Governor Megicks, before the case was heard, denied advising the union rep that the claimant should resign.
The tribunal found that the sacking was too harsh and that Mr Gough had a “genuine concern” for the prisoner’s safety.
It was also found that governor Megicks harassed him by encouraging him to resign during the investigation and previously harassed him by not giving him a promotion.
Governor Megicks is no longer with the prison service and did not provide a witness statement or evidence.
Employment Judge Naomi Shastri-Hurst said: “Given the subject matter of the video, namely [his] uncle who was in the IRA, we are satisfied that the sending of the message is related to race and religion, that being Northern Irish Catholicism.”
However, the judge ruled that the reason for the dismissal was not related to the claimant’s race or religion and rejected that element of the claim, while upholding the claim for harassment in relation to race.
Compensation for Mr Gough will be decided at a later hearing.
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