A FORMER school business manager who was arrested for being drunk and disorderly – then lambasted a custody officer on social media – has lost an unfair dismissal fight.

Problems began for Bronwen Evans-Shaw when she was given a fixed penalty notice of £135, in October 2015, for public drunkenness, an employment tribunal heard.

But while she was being detained, the hearing was told, she became obstructive, claiming she was a baroness and repeatedly struggling with police.

Evans-Shaw refused to co-operate to such an extent, ignoring risk assessment questions, that the officers decided to strip her and place her in an ‘anti-suicide suit', the tribunal heard.

While this task was being performed, Evans-Shaw claimed she was molested, shouting that they were raping her, before she was eventually placed in a cell.

Later she contacted around 30 of one of the custody officer’s friends on Facebook, outlining her version of events.

She added: “If you could tell me anything about her please I would appreciate it as I am prosecuting her, thanks in advance.”

Evans-Shaw was prosecuted for sending malicious communications and convicted, for which she was given a sentence of four months imprisonment, suspended for 21 months.

Her employers, Hendon Brook Short Stay School in Nelson, were present at the trial, through chairman of governors Anthony Harrison.

She was later disciplined and sacked for gross misconduct, with the school insisting they had not been notified of the original fixed penalty notice and the criminal offence was not compatible with her role within the school.

An appeal was lodged by Evans-Shaw, who had started working for the authority as a clerical assistant for the secondary school pupil referral unit, before transferring to Hendon Brook, but this was dismissed.

Evans-Shaw told the tribunal that she did not consider reporting the fixed penalty matter and she felt it was was an isolated incident, not serious, and she did not believe it affected her work.

She also said that she had been in the process of appealing her conviction at the time and did not want to prejudice that.

The tribunal heard the the school and their former employee had fallen out over the status of a work laptop. Hendon Brook claimed it had been impounded by police, as part of their investigation. But Evans-Shaw insisted the same laptop had later showed up in school audits.

Dismissing her unfair dismissal case, employment judge Pauline Feeney, said: “The claimant’s evidence where it was disputed I find unreliable.

“I did not find her a credible witness. It was clear she misled the disciplinary and appeal panel about her appeal against her conviction and alluded to legal advice when she had parted company from representatives.”