It found that the nurses from Darlington Memorial Hospital suffered harassment from their NHS trust, with the "effect of violating the dignity of the claimants and creating a hostile, intimidating, humiliating and degrading environment for them".
The nurses took County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust to the employment tribunal over a policy that allowed their colleague, Rose Henderson - who was born male but identifies as a woman - to use the changing room.
Rose Henderson had used the facility since starting at the hospital as a student in 2019. The complaints from other nurses began in 2023.
"Women were in distress - their dignity and privacy was being violated," Bethany Hutchison, one of the nurses who brought the case, had told Sky News.
"Women should be allowed to have safe single sex facilities. Particularly when you're just about to start a shift - we have to undress to our bra and knickers. It's not appropriate to have a biological male in there."
The tribunal upheld the complaint of indirect sex discrimination as it concluded that by permitting a trans woman to use the female changing room, the trust was in breach of health and safety laws and had "infringed the claimants' right to respect for private life" under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The judgment said the trust had subjected the nurses to harassment by not taking their concerns seriously, including by "referring to the need for the claimants to be educated on trans rights and to broaden their mindsets", and providing inadequate facilities.
But it concluded that Rose Henderson had not personally harassed or victimised the claimants.
The tribunal also rejected the claim that the trust had victimised the claimants.
A spokesperson for County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust said: "We are taking time to review the judgment carefully and will comment further once we have had the opportunity to consider it in full."
Ms Hutchison said the ruling is "a turning point" and "no woman should be forced to choose between her job and her safety".
She said: "Women deserve access to single-sex spaces without fear or intimidation. Forcing us to undress in front of a man was not only degrading but dangerous.
"Today's ruling sends a clear message: the NHS cannot ignore women's rights in the name of ideology."
Ms Hutchison told Sky News the nurses had feared losing their jobs or being "struck off the register" as a consequence of pursuing the case. She added the government needed to "intervene" by implementing guidelines to respond to the issue.
Rose Henderson had said the nurses were guilty of "direct discrimination and harassment that has created an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive environment, due to my protected characteristics".
The nurses' claim included allegations that Rose Henderson had harassed colleagues inside the changing room.
One of the nurses, Karen Danson, told the tribunal that Rose Henderson repeatedly asked her whether or not she was getting changed yet - and said this triggered a panic attack due to prior trauma. Rose Henderson denied the allegations, which the tribunal rejected.
The case was originally brought by eight nurses but one had to withdraw due to ill health.
The Darlington case is one of the first to test out in the courts the Supreme Court's landmark judgment in April 2025. The ruling in For Women Scotland vs The Scottish Ministers defined 'woman' as someone who was born female.
The judgment has already had a far-reaching impact on transgender people and the use of single sex spaces.
In late 2025, both Girl Guiding and the Women's Institute announced they would no longer accept transgender girls and women as members.
In December 2025, Scottish nurse Sandie Peggie only won part of a tribunal case against NHS Fife following a transgender colleague's use of a female changing room.
The tribunal found the trust had harassed her Ms Peggie, but dismissed all of her claims against her trans colleague Dr Beth Upton.
"I am grateful to the Darlington nurses for the courage they have shown in securing this important legal victory which has only strengthened my determination to continue with an appeal to overturn the judgment in my own case," she said.
Campaigners for transgender rights have criticised both the Supreme Court judgment and the way it has been interpreted.
Dr Victoria McCloud was the UK's first transgender judge, who is now mounting a legal challenge against the judgment, arguing trans people were denied the opportunity to give evidence to the court.
"It simply isn't the case that the law says you must exclude trans women from changing rooms, lavatories, places like that," Dr McCloud told Sky News.
"The Supreme Court wasn't asked to, and didn't make any decision about women's spaces. I don't know any sensible lawyers who would say the For Women Scotland judgment was in any way clear."
In Dr McCloud's view, the judgment has been "wilfully misinterpreted" to exclude trans people from single sex spaces, leading to a rise in abuse against the transgender community.
She told Sky News: "As a trans woman, I'm just at much at risk of rape as anyone else. We have been monstered, and aliened."
The government is yet to publish official guidance around the use of single sex spaces following the Supreme Court's decision, meaning the debate continues on, both inside and outside the courts.
Posting on X, the party said an army helicopter landed in Bobi Wine's compound, before taking him away to an unknown destination.
The country's elections this month have been marred by clashes and look set to extend President Yoweri Museveni's rule into a fifth decade.
Police claim that in the early hours of last night, machete-wielding "goons" were shot dead by security forces in the central town of Butambala.
Those killed were supporters of Bobi Wine - who is trailing in the polls and looks set for a landslide defeat.
Authorities claim the mob had attacked a polling station and a police station at around 3am.
Local police spokesperson Lydia Tumushabe said the armed group "came in big numbers" and security forces had acted in self defence.
"Police fired in self defence", she told Reuters, adding that 25 people had been arrested.
But supporters of Wine dispute the narrative.
MP Muwanga Kivumbi argues that those killed were unarmed and shot dead inside his house.
He described the scenes as a "massacre" - claiming the number of people killed was as high as 10.
Read more from Sky News:
Man jailed for murdering wife and child
Teen plotted Stockport-style attack
Mr Kivumbi said: "There were people inside the garage who were waiting for the results to celebrate my victory.
"They broke the front door and began shooting inside the garage.
"It was a massacre."
He said security forces had earlier dispersed crowds outside but disputed the police's assertion that the deaths occurred outdoors.
It is still unknown exactly how many were killed, nor have the circumstances of their deaths been verified.
It marks a violent end to an election campaign that has been plagued by allegations of voter suppression.
Sky's Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir reported seeing snatch squads picking people up and bundling them into the back of armoured trucks as people registered their vote.
Images show heavily armed security forces as they patrol the capital of Kampala.
Litter is strewn across the street and officers can be seen watching on as fires rage across the city.
Meanwhile, Museveni looks set to cling onto power. Preliminary results announced by the electoral commission showed he was set for a landslide with more than 75% of votes.
Wine, who was a popular singer before entering politics, trails on around 21%.
He has alleged mass fraud during the election, which took place under an internet blackout.
His party, the National Unity Platform (NUP) party posted to X late on Thursday that the government was "effectively placing him under house arrest" after beating him at the polls - something national police said they were unaware of.
Museveni told reporters after casting his ballot on Thursday that he expected to win with 80% of the vote "if there's no cheating".
The dictator seized power in 1986 after a bloody civil war and has held on to power since.
Edward Brandt, 61, was found guilty of the offence in November following a trial at Southampton Crown Court, but was acquitted of the more serious offence of stalking involving serious alarm or distress.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, the former Conservative cabinet minister said: "I am completely exhausted due to the stress, every time I step out of the building I am looking over my shoulder and checking to see if he is there.
"I am living in a constant fear of a confrontation. It's hugely impacted all aspects of my life, both my professional life and personal life, and I cannot stress enough how much I am exhausted by it."
The court previously heard Dame Penny believed Brandt was a "real threat" and feared "sexual violence" because of his "creepy" behaviour.
The trial was told that Brandt sent at least 17 emails and three phone messages to Dame Penny, as well as turning up at her Portsmouth constituency office out of hours between 11 September 2023 and 12 May 2024.
Brandt, who lived on the Isle of Wight at the time, failed to comply with the terms of a conditional caution issued in April 2024, which required him to complete a victim awareness course and not to contact Dame Penny, the trial heard.
'I am not giving up'
The divorced father of two then left two voicemail messages for her on 6 and 10 May, and in one of the messages, he said: "I am going to go on gently knocking at your door in order to shake your hand, I am not giving up."
Sentencing Brandt, Judge William Mousley KC said: "I am satisfied that there is a real risk of you reoffending or causing harm to other people."
He said it was clear that Brandt's behaviour had a "very significant and enduring impact" on Dame Penny.
Read more from Sky News:
Uganda election descends into deadly violence
West Midlands Police chief retires after Maccabi fan ban row
Brandt, who had worked as a professional sailor and used to be a Tory councillor for East Hampshire District Council, told the court that he wanted to shake Dame Penny's hand, and that his intention was "entirely political and entirely harmless".
He was also sentenced for seven breaches of a stalking protection order in December 2025 by failing to notify police of devices capable of connecting to the internet and of the creation of accounts on Facebook and Snapchat.
The stalking protection order is in place until November 2034.
Brandt was handed 12 weeks in jail over the stalking offence and another eight to serve consecutively for the breaches of the order.
But who? Notice that he said a "Labour figure" rather than "Labour MP".
That perhaps suggests he means an ex-MP or a peer. Or someone who's both.
And after Nadhim Zahawi and Robert Jenrick this week, what about more Tory defectors.
Kemi Badenoch told Sky News she was "100% confident" there would be no more shadow cabinet defections.
In both parties, it's fair to assume that candidates for defecting to Reform UK will be committed Brexiteers, socially conservative and - from Labour - Red Wallers or Blue Labour.
That narrows it down. In the 2016 referendum the two most high-profile pro-Brexit Labour MPs were Kate Hoey and Gisela Stuart, both awarded a peerage by Boris Johnson and both no longer Labour.
Kate Hoey
Born in Norther Ireland, as MP for the inner London seat of Vauxhall she was a junior Home Office minister and then sports minister under Tony Blair, but later became an outspoken backbench rebel.
She was pro fox hunting, pro-Brexit, pro tougher immigration controls, pro curbs on welfare spending and grammar schools. She was against the Iraq war, Trident, tuition fees, ID cards and more LGBT+ rights.
On Brexit, she was co-chair of Labour Leave, active in Grassroots Out, alongside Mr Farage and left-wing firebrand George Galloway, and accused the BBC of being "embittered remainers".
Asked if she's Mr Farage's "well known Labour figure", she told sky News: "Not sure I'm that well known. Haven't been a Labour Party member for over eight years!" Not a yes or a no, then.
Gisela Stuart
Born in Germany, she was MP for the suburban seat of Birmingham Edgbaston and a junior health minister under Tony Blair. She was later chair of Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign, led by Borish Johnson and Michael Gove.
Johnson later appointed her First Civil Service Commissioner, effectively a Whitehall watchdog, a post she still holds under Sir Keir Starmer.
But she emphatically denies being poised to defect to Reform UK. "Thank you for the straightforward question," she told Sky News. "It deserves a straightforward answer… No."
Read more:
All the former Conservative MPs who have defected to Reform
Ex-Tory chancellor defects to Reform
And what about possible Conservative defections? As Kemi Badenoch says, shadow cabinet defections are highly unlikely. But there are potential Tory defectors among ex-ministers and less senior front benchers. For example:
Suella Braverman
Named after Sue Ellen Ewing in Dallas, (yes, really!), the fiercely right-wing former home secretary has been on defection watch for years.
That's hardly surprising. In 2024 she suggested the Conservatives should welcome Nigel Farage into the party to "unite the right", a phrase used by Robert Jenrick after his defection.
As a controversial home secretary, she said sending illegal migrants to Rwanda was her "dream" and called left-wing demonstrators "Guardian-reading, Tofu-eating wokerati". She's a bitter opponent of the European Convention on Human Rights.
MP for Fareham and Waterlooville in Hampshire, she chaired the pro-Brexit European Research Group of Tory MPs, was a Brexit minister under Theresa May but quit and stood for the Tory leadership and then backed Liz Truss.
Andrew Rosindell
The Romford MP and devotee of Margaret Thatcher has called Mr Farage "a good man and a patriot" and said he could serve in a government with him in a Conservative-Reform coalition.
He also co-sponsored a private member's bill introduced by Mr Farage which aimed to prevent "foreign judges" overturning decisions made by the UK parliament.
Socially conservative and Euro-sceptic, he was a Brexit rebel against Theresa May, a critic of Boris Johnson's lockdown policy during the Covid pandemic and has voted against extending LGBT+ rights.
Asked if he was planning to defect, animal lover Mr Rosindell sent Sky News a photo of a cute dog with the caption: "Who me?" Make of that what you will!
Craig Guildford will step down with immediate effect, West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said on Friday.
"In doing so, he has acted with honour and in the best interests of West Midlands Police and our region. I welcome his decision," Mr Foster said.
Mr Guildford said after his retirement was announced that the "political and media frenzy" around his position had become "detrimental" to the force.
His decision comes after Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said she did not have confidence in the police chief, following his force's controversial ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters from a Europa League tie against Aston Villa at Villa Park in November.
On Wednesday, Ms Mahmood said: "We have witnessed a failure of leadership that has harmed the reputation of and eroded public confidence in West Midlands police, and policing more broadly."
After it was announced that Mr Guildford would retire, the home secretary welcomed the move and said he had "done the right thing".
"I would like to acknowledge his years of service. And I pay tribute to the work of the officers in West Midlands Police, who keep their community safe every day," Ms Mahmood said.
"Today marks a crucial first step to rebuilding trust and confidence in the force amongst all the communities they serve."
But Villa Park MP Ayoub Khan criticised Mr Guildford's retirement in a statement, saying it was "one of the greatest injustices of our time", a chief constable was "sacrificed not for failure, but for doing his duty".
He added Mr Guildford is "a public servant [who was] ousted for protecting the people of Birmingham and refusing to play politics; a police commander removed for judging the Maccabi Tel Aviv ultras not on their faith or nationality, but on the storied history of violence, racism and thuggery that showed the content of their character".
On Wednesday, Mr Guildford had apologised to MPs for giving them "erroneous" evidence about the ban. He revealed that WMP's citing of a fictional match to justify the ban was down to the force's use of AI, something Mr Guildford had previously denied to MPs.
The force, which has been accused of misrepresenting the threat posed by the Maccabi fans to justify its ban, also apologised last month for telling MPs that members of the Jewish community had backed its decision, admitting there was "no documented feedback" to support the claim.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch were among those who criticised the decision to ban away fans from attending the Israeli side's match in the UK's second-largest city on 6 November.
Sir Keir was said to be "angered" by the decision, while Ms Badenoch went further and said Mr Guildford's position was "untenable", and claimed he had "capitulated to Islamists and then collaborated with them to cover it up".
"West Midlands Police have been subjected to, understandable, intense and significant oversight and scrutiny as a consequence of events that led to the recommendation it made" to the Birmingham City Council Safety Advisory Group to ban the fans, Mr Foster acknowledged on Friday.
Read more from Sky News:
Why Maccabi fans were banned
Serious question about one of UK's biggest cities
He said WMP had received a letter from His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, which "set out significant preliminary concerns and shortcomings in relation to preparation and planning" by the force.
Deputy Chief Constable Scott Green has been appointed as WMP's acting chief constable, Mr Foster said.
"We have already met, to discuss the actions that the force must take to rebuild trust and confidence amongst all the people and communities of the West Midlands, including addressing the significant matters identified in the letter from HMIC," he added.