Prison officer Janet Norridge killed self after being sacked for watching rugby, inquest hears

An employment tribunal later ruled that prison officers made an error in law by sacking her

Janet Norridge was spotted at a live TV screening of a 2011 Rugby World Cup match at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (Dimitris Legakis/Athena Picture Agency Ltd)

A prison officer killed herself after being sacked for watching a Rugby World Cup match while she was off work recovering from a cancer scare, an inquest has heard.

Janet Norridge, 34, was reported to Cardiff Prison governors after being spotted in the crowd by a colleague.

She was suspended from work and then took her own life after losing an appeal.

The inquest heard Ms Norridge was hit by a health scare after a relative died of bowel cancer and she tested positive for a gene which gave her an 80 per cent chance of also developing the disease.

She went to the doctor and was given three weeks off work to come to terms with the shock.

Ms Norridge's mother Joanna said her daughter was "right in her feeling that she was unfairly dismissed" and that she suffered "unbelievable cruelty" by the prison authorites, the BBC reports.

"She felt she had been unfairly dismissed - that was the matter playing on her mind," The Guardian reports the Gwent Coroner, David Bowen, saying.

"I will be writing to the director of the prison service asking for a review of the treatment provided to prison staff facing disciplinary hearings in order that they deal appropriately with the people that appear before them."

An employment tribunal later found in favour of Mrs Norridge and her husband John, ruling that prison officers made an error in law by sacking Ms Norridge, the inquest was told.