Paul Reed

Paul Reed, a violent male transvestite, has been convicted of numerous sexual assaults against young girls and women – while dressed as a woman. These offences have been perpetrated with little punishment for over a decade.

A court in 2019 was told that of the 62 offences making up Reed’s 28 previous convictions, 24 were for breaches of his sexual offender orders, with all but one marked by suspended sentences or community orders.

Judge after judge has avoided sentencing Reed, 56, to jail time, instead imposing community orders leaving him free to commit more sexual assaults on women and girls, often immediately. 

Media coverage is often sympathetic, citing his stories of being bullied as a child, or being short, as if that were in any way responsible for the decisions he repeatedly makes to sexually assault women and girls. The Metro even printed his story that it “comforted” him to touch (i.e. sexually assault) women. Kent Live referred to him with the cutesy adjective of “pint-sized” – completely inappropriate when describing a prolific sex offender who has assaulted and seriously distressed so many women and girls.

Most recently Reed was convicted at Maidstone Crown Court in April 2019 of 11 offences, including three sexual assaults – one in December 2017, one in December 2018  (ie around the time he was in court for a previous assault) and another in March 2019, plus eight breaches of an order banning him from covering his face or approaching, touching or communicating with women. He is currently in prison after being sentenced (by a female judge) to three years on 1 July 2019. His victims were a 15 year old girl, an adult woman he repeatedly victimised and a vulnerable homeless woman.

Judge Adele Williams said: “You have an entrenched and long-standing compulsion to behave in this way and my duty is now clear. It is to protect the public from your behaviour.

Prior to these offences, Reed was convicted in November 2018 at Blackfriars Crown Court of common assault with intent to commit a sexual assault and two further charges of sexual assault and common assault were ordered to remain on file. The court heard that Reed was in breach of two suspended sentences at the time of his latest crime and has 27 previous convictions.

In July 2018 two police officers had observed Reed watching female passengers as they left Covent Garden Station in London and followed him believing he was about to commit theft. Reed had walked up to the woman a number of times before finally draping a black fur-lined coat over her shoulders and then touching her through it. When she turned around he pretended to backtrack, saying: “Sorry, wrong person.” When the police officers apprehended him, Reed called the woman a “liar”and threatened to “take her to court”, the court heard.

 Reed’s own defence barrister told the court that “Periods in custody and the registration requirements of the sexual offences act have made absolutely no difference.” Despite previous orders to attend sex offenders’ programmes (which clearly had no effect) the judge imposed a two-year community order comprising 34 sessions on the Horizon programme (for sex offenders with above average risk of reoffending) with 50 days’ rehabilitation activity requirement which will supervise it. A four-month prison term imposed after activating two suspended sentences had already been served by Reed while in custody awaiting trial for the offence.

The Mirror also reported that Reed, of Chatham, Kent, was made subject to a sexual harm prevention order prohibiting him from approaching, touching or making any attempts to communicate with females unknown to him in public. He is also banned from covering his face with any clothing and travelling on the Tube, DLR or any Overground trains without a registered Oyster or contactless payment card.

In 2016 Reed appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged with sexually assaulting a woman on a train in January 2016 and breaches of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO). He received a suspended prison sentence.

He has repeatedly breached SHPOs and SOPOs and a succession of judges have seemingly gone out of their way to relax conditions imposed on him to protect women and girls and/or failed to jail him. Attendance at a sex offenders’ rehabilitation course appears to have had no effect on his offending and he has often reoffended just weeks after appearing in court. In fact, the only times he hasn’t offended in the past ten years are when he has been in prison.

Due to his short stature and practised use of stereotypical clothing, scent and accessories, his victims typically report thinking he was an elderly woman and not realising he was a man until it was too late. For this reason the terms of his SHPO ban him from approaching unknown women on the street while dressed as a woman.

Despite his indisputable record of predatory sexual offending, his defence lawyers even stated in court that it is “not sexually motivated but simply a lonely man receiving attention from a person in the street” because he “did not feel comfortable around men, who had mocked him about his height, instead seeking solace from women.” Reed dates his transvestism back to the age of 11 and wearing his mother’s clothes, a familiar autogynephilia narrative.

Rather than recognise that he alone is responsible for his sexual offending and that he could stop sexually assaulting women and girls, Reed (in common with the majority of abusers) recasts himself as a victim. After appearing in court for the umpteenth time he is quoted as saying “I’m an easy target for the police and for newspapers” and that his “life and work and his family’s lives had been ruined by the court proceedings”, when of course it is his offending that has led to these consequences. Also in common with other sexually abusive men, he fails to register that his offending will have had traumatic effects on his many victims’ lives.

His catalogue of sexual offending against women and girls apparently dates back to 1994 and news reports available on his convictions includes:

2007: Convicted of sexual offences committed in 2006, including sexual activity with an underage girl and given his first sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) banning him from wearing women’s clothing.

July 2008: Having spent 138 days in prison after admitting three counts of breaching the  SOPO he was released and sentenced to 36 months community supervision which included attending a sex offenders programme.

August 2008: Just 23 days after being released from jail Reed is arrested in London after attacking a woman in London while dressed in women’s clothing.

October 2008: Avoids jail for breach as Reed said to be attending a sex offenders’ programme. Reed’s SOPO amended to only prohibit him from approaching any female not previously associated with him while posing as a female and while wearing any item of women’s clothing. Sentenced to 80 hours unpaid community work in addition to the three year community order made in July.

Nov 2008: Remanded into custody at Canterbury Magistrates’ Court charged with sexually assaulting three girls aged 14, 16 and a woman aged 20 while dressed in women’s hat, coat and scarf the previous month. Also charged with three counts of breaching the terms of a SOPO banning him from possessing or wearing women’s clothes.

2009: Reed jailed for three years in 2009 for luring a 14-year-old girl into his car. Reed’s SOPO is amended to prohibit him carrying women’s clothing as well as dressing as a woman in order to approach women and girls.

2012 Reed admitted the theft of a woman’s coat from and charity shop and seven breaches of a SOPO.

August 2012: Again, Reed avoided jail and is made subject to a community order for two years. As psychiatrists concluded “the wearing of women’s clothing is ingrained in Reed’s psyche” and  “learned behaviour in order to meet his emotional needs,” Reed’s SOPO was amended to allow him to cross dress as long as he does not cover his face in public – or approach women “not previously associated with him” so that they will know he is a man.

December 2012: Reed pleaded guilty to two breaches of a sexual offences prevention order and was given a nine month prison sentence suspended for two years. He was also given a curfew and fitted with an electronic tag.

July 2016: Reed appears at Westminster Magistrates Court charged with sexually assaulting a woman on a train while dressed as a woman.

July 2018: Reed charged with sexually assaulting a female tube passenger at Chatham Magistrates Court after two police officers observed him watching female passengers as they left Covent Garden Station in London.

November 2018: Reed convicted at Blackfriars Crown Court after pleading guilty to common assault with intent to commit a sexual assault and two further charges of sexual assault and common assault were ordered to remain on file. 

April 2019: Reed was convicted of 11 offences, including three sex assaults in 2017 and 2018 and eight breaches of an order banning him from covering his face or approaching, touching or communicating with women.

July 2019: Sentenced to 3 years in prison for the three sexual assaults against a 15 year old girl and two adult women (one of whom was homeless and therefore particularly vulnerable) and 8 SHPO breaches.

Photo via Kent Police

Media reports:

Kent Police https://www.kent.police.uk/news/policing-news/0719/chatham-sex-offender-jailed-for-three-years/

Kent Online https://www.kentonline.co.uk/maidstone/news/man-who-dressed-as-old-lady-to-touch-women-back-behind-bars-202809/ archive 

Mirror https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/cross-dresser-wore-old-granny-17323301

The Sun https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9414545/cross-dressing-sex-offender-granny-disguise/

Kent Live https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/chatham-pervert-who-dressed-granny-3042005

Metro https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/16/sex-pest-posed-vulnerable-pensioner-stroke-women-comfort-9222944/

Daily Mirror https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/transvestite-fondles-woman-through-fur-13668679

Court News http://courtnewsuk.co.uk/transvestite-sexually-assaulted-female-tube-passenger/

SWNS http://swns.com/news/transvestite-court-fifteen-times-dressing-lady-grope-women-29507/

Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3695798/5ft-tall-transvestite-dressed-like-little-old-lady-large-scarf-long-overcoat-grope-drunken-woman-got-train.html

The Sun https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1463675/five-foot-tall-transvestite-dressed-as-a-little-old-lady-to-grope-a-female-train-passenger/

Daily Mirror http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/paul-reed-transvestite-told-he-can-1234309

Kent Online http://www.kentonline.co.uk/medway/news/sex-pest-transvestite-paul-reed–a57643/

Kent Online http://www.kentonline.co.uk/canterbury/news/prison-warning-for-man-who-dresses-in-women-a104704/

Kent Online http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kent/news/five-foot-transvestite-paul-reed-a63369/