Female prisoners at greater risk of sexual assault by transgender inmates, High Court hears

 

By Gabriella Swerling

2 March 2021 • 7:12pm

Trans prisoners should be excluded from female wings because they are "disproportionately" likely to commit sexual assaults, the High Court has heard.

The Ministry of Justice's policy of placing trans women in women's prisons is being challenged by a prisoner who claims she was sexually assaulted behind bars.

FDJ, who cannot be identified, claims that in 2017 she was sexually assaulted in prison by a trans woman, known as J, who had convictions for "serious sexual offences against women". J was being housed in the general population of a women's prison.

FDJ’s lawyers claim that J has a gender recognition certificate (GRC), which is not admitted by the MoJ. As a result, they are arguing that the Government's policy of allocating trans inmates to prisons based on their declared gender identity unlawfully discriminates against women.

Speaking on the first day of the two-day remote hearing, Karon Monaghan QC, representing FDJ, told the court that trans inmates account for one per cent of the population of the women's estate but "they are responsible for 5.6 per cent of sexual assaults".

"There's a disproportionality," she said, adding that trans inmates are "more likely to be committing sexual assaults in the prison estate". She also quoted MoJ statistics detailing the population estimates for trans prisoners in England and Wales.

The hearing, taking place before Lord Justice Holroyde and Mr Justice Swift, was told that there were 125 trans prisoners in 2017, 60 of whom were serving sentences for sexual offences. Of those 60, 27 were serving a prison sentence for rape.

Ms Monaghan also told the hearing that, between 2016 and 2020, there were seven sexual assaults against females in women's prisons by trans women.

FDJ is also challenging a separate policy in relation to a "high-risk trans prisoner unit" at HMP Downview in Surrey, which was created in March 2019.

However, the MoJ argues that both of its policies pursue legitimate aims, including "facilitating the rights of transgender people to live in and as their acquired gender (and) protecting transgender people's mental and physical health".

The case was originally due to be heard in October but was adjourned after the MoJ disclosed potentially important documents less than an hour before the hearing.

At a brief hearing in October, FDJ’s lawyers claimed the current MoJ policy "exposes female prisoners to a risk of sexual assault that would not (otherwise) arise".

At the time, Ms Monaghan said the policy was put in place despite "the extraordinary vulnerability of female prisoners and the prevalence of a history of abuse and gendered violence". She also claimed MoJ statistics suggested that trans prisoners were "five times more likely to carry out sex attacks on inmates in women's jails than other prisoners are".

However, Sarah Hannett, representing the MoJ, said the claim was based on "a tiny data sample of seven sexual assaults over ... a four-year period", from which it was "impossible to draw any meaningful conclusion".

She added that an individual's "offending history" was considered when deciding where to allocate a transgender prisoner and that the risk of harm they may present to other prisoners was a "fundamental consideration".

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Telegraph - Trans Soldier on Army's "Women in Leadership" Panel Provokes Backlash

Image
Jump to content Trans soldier on Army's ‘women in leadership’ panel provokes backlash Deborah Penny, Britain's first transgender person to serve on the front line, took part in the talk Sandhurst (Original Article Here ) By Hayley Dixon,   SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT 11 August 2023 •  The Army is facing questions over a decision to feature a trans soldier on a panel at a “women in leadership” event. Warrant Officer Class 2 Deborah Penny, who became the first  transgender soldier to serve on the front line , took part in a discussion on “lived experience” of women in the forces during the event at Sandhurst this week. The soldier, who has served in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan during a career spanning more than 40 years, is the Warrant Officer for diversity and inclusion in Army engagement. Campaigners have questioned why the bomb disposal expert was given a place on the five-person panel over a biological woman, saying that WO2 Penny’s experience was “irrelevant
Read more

The Times - Sex offender Gordon Pike helped set prison trans rules

Image
Sex offender Gordon Pike helped set prison trans rules The policy of putting male-bodied offenders in female jails was backed by an official later convicted over child pornography Andrew Gilligan December 2 2018, 12:01am,  The Sunday Times Gordon Pike, right, agreed that male-bodied murderers such as Paris Green, left, born Peter Laing, should be jailed alongside women An official who agreed a policy allowing male-bodied sex offenders into women’s prisons was a sex offender who hoarded 22,000 indecent pictures of children. Gordon Pike, a senior official of the Scottish Prison Service, was one of those responsible for its “gender identity and gender reassignment policy”, documents seen by The Sunday Times show. The policy is significantly more liberal than England’s, stating that transgender prisoners must normally be housed according to the “social gender” with which they self-identify, “whether or not” they have legally changed it. Two years after approving the policy, Pike, 57, was a
Read more

Seven sex attacks in women’s jails by transgender convicts The Times 11.05.20

Seven sex attacks in women’s jails by transgender convicts The Times 11.05.20 Transgender prisoners are five times more likely to carry out sex attacks on inmates at women’s jails than other prisoners are, official figures show. Male prisoners who were transferred to women’s jails during gender reassignment and women inmates who are transitioning committed seven of the 124 sex attacks recorded between 2010 and 2018. They occurred at HMP Low Newton in Co Durham, Foston Hall in Derbyshire, Peterborough, Bronzefield in Middlesex and New Hall, West Yorkshire. Karen White, a child abuser who dressed as a woman but was still legally a man, was jailed for life in 2018 for sexually assaulting two prisoners at HMP New Hall and the rape of a woman while he was outside jail. Lord Keen of Elie, the Ministry of Justice spokesman in the Lords, told Labour’s Baroness McDonagh, in a written answer that there had been five attacks. The Ministry of Justice later updated the response to include White’s a
Read more