Anthony/Toni Prince

Anthony/Toni Prince, a male who identifies as a transgender woman, was convicted in 2019 at Sheffield Crown Court of making indecent images of children; possession of prohibited images of children and possession of extreme pornographic images.

The Sheffield Star reveals that police raided Prince’s home after receiving intelligence. Two laptops and a mobile phone were seized and analysis showed Prince, 55, had downloaded a total of 1,191 indecent images of children, whose ages ranged between five and 13-years-old.

108 images were of the most serious category A, defined as content which shows children being raped. There were also 90 Category B images, 993 Category C images, 53 images of extreme pornography and 337 prohibited images of children which were cartoons, manga or drawings.

In a case concerning over a hundred images of real children being raped, it appears deeply incongruous that the (male) judge said he regarded Prince’s three-year wait for the case to come to court as ‘torture’.

Prince told police of abuse as a young child and the court heard Prince’s offending was “impulsive and obsessive behaviour that would manifest at times when her mental health was at the fore and she was struggling” seeming to (wrongly) suggest mental ill health and a history of abuse plays a role in repeatedly downloading huge numbers of images showing children being sexually abused.

The coverage and headline referred to Prince as a woman, although does reference the offender’s legal name of Anthony, and transgender status.

The feminist campaign group Fairplay For Women submitted a complaint on 19 July 2019 to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) stating that the use of the word ‘woman’ is inaccurate and misleading and breaches Clause 1(i) of the Editors Code; 1. Accuracy i) The Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.

Photo credit: UK Paedophile Database

Media reports

Sheffield Star
https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/crime/sheffield-woman-found-with-over-1000-indecent-images-of-children-hauled-before-the-court-477960 archive

Women Are Human https://www.womenarehuman.com/transgender-who-downloaded-images-of-rapes-of-small-children-is-spared-prison-after-police-flub-anthony-toni-prince/ archive

UK & Ireland Paedophile Database https://uk-database.org/2019/07/16/toni-prince-sheffield/

Daily Star https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/crime/sex-offender-spared-jail-following-unjust-delay-by-police-in-sheffield-485493 archive