Custody officer job withdrawn for GC beliefs - Gribbon (SP legal team) is his solicitor

[InterrobangsArePureBias]

I wonder how many more of such actions will be launched. To adapt Jimmy Doyle’s phrase, “the spectacle of this nation’s [lanyard classes] enforcing moral auto-lobotomy as a condition of entry to [employment]”.

A prison custody officer who was sacked for saying he would not address male-born transgender inmates as ‘she’ or ‘her’ has launched legal action against one of the UK’s largest security firms.
Army veteran David Toshack, 50, was dismissed by GEOAmey during a training course only days before taking up a role as a prison custody officer (PCO) at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.
The father of three told a safeguarding workshop that he would not be comfortable using a transgender inmates’ preferred gender pronouns and expressed his belief that a man could not become a woman.
It sparked a horrified reaction from bosses at the firm, which employs thousands of justice workers across the UK, who said his views were against the law and company policy.
…
He said: ‘I’m just a normal, working class person who’s never been in trouble with the law before, not got a criminal record, lived a good life. I’ve been prepared to go and fight and die for my country, and then I have come back here and been told that there’s certain things you can’t think or can’t say.’

https://archive.is/bxjqC

Original story about David Toshack in Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14963309/Prison-custody-officer-sacked-refusing-call-male-born-trans-prisoners-her.html

Are they going to say they sacked him because he didn’t agree with DEI policies? Large swathes of the country would be immediately out of work if that policy was globally instituted.

From TT

own wrists, to make them bleed.

DH - who was this
DT - CH
DH - to just you
DT, no it was the larger group,
DH - anything you remember in particular
DT - he - CH - said 'she tried to cut off one of her testicles' , I reacted and said 'do you realise how ridiculous that

From TT

sounds'. CH said you had to do it, use their pronouns.
DH - anything else
DT - so i said to him, that's just bollocks, and an older man on the course, said 'literally bollocks' and everyone burst out laughing
DH - what was the tone
DT - it wasn't combative, it was people

From TT

expressing views.
DH - did you explain why you thought it was ridiculous
DT - yes, i said that men and women can't change sex, I don't believe it.
DH - this may be important, as best you can, what do you remember saying about your beliefs about transgender people during that

From TT

discussion
DT - I said that I didn't believe that males and females can't change sex, I can't remember if i referred to biology or my Christian beliefs but I certainly stated my beliefs.
DH - did you say this to anyone in particular or to the room at large
DT - I was looking at

Cliff hanger ending…

(Tune in next week etc etc)

From TT

CH when I said it
DH - what did he say
DT - he said it was the law and GA policy.
DH - what was the tone of the discussion
DT - I don't remember the tone, it ended the discussion, I could tell everyone agreed with me, but kept their heads down for quiet life

From TT

DH - did CH say anything else to you that went beyond that discussion,
DT - I can't recall if I said that I had the right to hold GC beliefs, he said that he knew the law. I don't know if that's when it came up.
DH - did CH raise any concerns at that point
DT - no he didn't

From TT

single me out or raise it with me.
DH - CH completed interview form for week 3, do you recollect that it came up in any student interview, him expressing any concerns
DT - at no time do I have a recollection of him saying that this was a problem.
DH - there was another time it

From TT

came up, when was that
DT - he was talking about the same prisoner - Tiffany Scott - he referred to him as a 'him, he'. And I remember thinking that he realised how ridiculous he sounded and it was maybe a little win. I didn't raise my hand, I had no issue with what he said.

DH - now onto session in January 2025, did the issue of transgender prisoners came up again
DT - yes
DH - do you recollect any other particular reference to trans prisoners by any of the staff - training staff - on the course
DT - I don't think so, nothing significant enough

From TT

for me to recollect
DH - when did this occur
DT - 2 days before the end of the course
DH - who brought it up
DT - Sarah Harding, I think introduced as safeguarding leading
DH - where and how many people were there DT - I don't think so, nothing significant enough

From TT

DT - it was at the prison, the full cohort was there, 4 or 5 people had been binned by that point but all of the 20 that were left
DH - how did it come up
DT - it came up, had a back and forth with the trainer, i said I would use pronouns
DH - it was during the searching

From TT

policy training?
DT - yes
DH - can you recall what you said
DT - I explained my religious beliefs, that I didn't believe that people could change sex
DH - do you remember what you said
DT - along the lines of 'I'm not going to use someone's incorrect pronouns'

From TT

DH - what did Miss Harding sayd
DT - I can't recall specifically, but she rebutted what I said, I don't remember if it was a reference to law or policy.
DH - did you explain to SH why you objected
DT - because I was a Christian and my beliefs in biology and science

’she tried to cut off one of her testicles', I reacted and said 'do you realise how ridiculous that sounds'

He’s not wrong!

From TT

DH - did you make specific reference to Christianity, biology and science
DT - it's hard for me to remember exactly what I said but those are my beliefs so i would have said anything else.
DH - it came up during searching, did you express views on searching in the training

I will be surprised if David wins this (pleasantly surprised though) but I would also be amazed if in the judgment he is described as ‘unreliable’.

From TT

DT - I think it only came up during the dismissal hearing, I don't remember that it came up in the training.

DH - what is your position on searching a transgender prisoner
DT - I understood that if a TW, wanted to be searched by a woman, he could be searched by a woman, from my

If he’s been discriminated against on the basis of protected belief and/or religious belief, I wouldn’t be surprised if he won?

Are the Scottish Prisons still getting female officers to search TIM's?

From TT

own position, I searched people in the army, men women, anyone, I don't care. But from GA policy I think it was that prisoners should be searched by someone of the sex they identified add.
DH - did you say that you would refuse to search a trans prisoner

But this is Scotland we are talking about here.

From TT

in the meeting with Sarah Harding
DT - no, because that's not what I believe, like I said to CH in the dismissal meeting, I don't care who I search, it's just a physical act, I'm not affirming them.
DH - staying with the training course with SH, now looking at slides from course

It's beginning to look like it's this Sarah Harding who was the driver for the dismissal. Another handmaiden?