Stacey Smith tried to kill her boss over a rota dispute but her co-worker wife was later dismissed from her job
Benedict Tetzlaff-Deas News Reporter and Cheryl Mullin
07:42, 08 Jan 2026
Paula Smith, left, was unfairly sacked after her wife Stacey launched a brutal hammer attack on their boss(Image: Facebook)
An ambulance worker sacked after her wife tried to murder their boss is in line for a £14,000 pay out from the NHS after winning an unfair dismissal.
Michala Morton was subjected to a brutal attack at her home by Paula Smith’s wife Stacey, after the pair became convinced the supervisor was denying them time off together. Paula was then sacked by the NHS trust she worked for, despite police ruling she had nothing to do with her wife’s attack.
Now Paula, who was 56 at the time of her sacking, is 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 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 attack.
She had worked in patient transport for 26 years and was married to Stacey, who worked with her. The tribunal was told Paula and Stacey “wanted to work together” and “have their rotas arranged so 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.
They raised a grievance against Ms Morton in December 2021, which the tribunal found was never formally dealt with. The Smiths raised a further grievance with the service in September 2022.
The tribunal was told that on the morning of November 11, 2023, Stacey brutally assaulted Ms Morton with a hammer outside her home.
Paula “played no part in this attack” and woke up to find her wife had already left the house, only learning of what happened after her wife’s arrest.
A tribunal has ruled Paula was unfairly sacked after her wife Stacey, left, attacked their boss(Image: Facebook)
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 initially suspended on full pay, and in March 2024 Greater Manchester Police decided not to pursue a criminal case against her, lifting her bail conditions.
A formal hearing about Paula’s 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 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 became aware 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.
Michala Morton was battered with a hammer in a row over the rota(Image: North West Ambulance Trust)
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 nine 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 jailed for 20 years (Image: Greater Manchester Police (GMP))
Stacey Smith was convicted of attempted murder and jailed for 20 years, with an extended licence period of five years. She has since ended her relationship with Paula, the tribunal heard.
Employment Judge Paul Holmes found 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 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 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 Paula had been unfairly dismissed, and the exact amount of compensation Paula will receive may be decided at a later date.
