UK NEWS

Prison service admits 7 women raped by Transgender prisoners

10 May, 2020
David Clews

Transgender prisoners have carried out seven sex attacks on women in jail according to reports in The Mail on Sunday.

Male-born trans prisoners were first allowed to request a transfer to women’s jails in England and Wales in 2016.

Just a year later the risks of the policy were made clear when a convicted rapist was moved to women’s jail HMP New Hall and sexually assaulted two women inmates.

The most famous case was that of convicted rapist Karen White who was moved to women’s jail HMP New Hall and sexually assaulted two women inmates

Karen White dressed as a woman but still possessed male genitalia. White was jailed for life in 2018 by a judge who branded White a ‘highly manipulative’ predator.

Now the Ministry of Justice has admitted the case was not a one-off. In response to a Parliamentary question from former Labour Party General Secretary Baroness McDonagh, Ministers have revealed there have been several other sexual assaults by trans prisoners.

It means that although trans women make up about one per cent of the 3,600 female jail population, they are to blame for 5.6 per cent of sexual assaults there. The attacks took place at HMP Low Newton, HMP Foston Hall, HMP Peterborough (Female) and HMP Bronzefield as well as HMP New Hall.

The MoJ said it did not know if the culprits had been punished, saying this information was ‘not held centrally’. It also insisted there had been ‘no reported incidents of any type of sexual assault against prison officers by trans prisoners’, despite claims to the contrary.

Former Prisons Minister Rory Stewart said in a recent interview there had been ‘situations of male prisoners self-identifying as females then raping staff in prison’.

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