Roderick Deakin-White

Roderick Deakin-White, a violent male transvestite, was convicted at Snaresbrook Crown Court in November 2019 of the murder of Amy Parsons, a 35 year old Australian woman from Melbourne. He was jailed for a minimum of 17 years.

There was no dispute that Deakin-White, 38, killed Ms Parsons and he admitted manslaughter in July 2019. However, the CPS did not accept this plea and prosecuted him for murder.

Ms Parsons’ sister Eve commented after sentencing that “Amy was a very private person. She would be mortified to have all of this out there in the world for people to see. It should not have been and had we not had to come to trial, it would not have been. It is hard to listen to all of that, knowing how she would have felt about it.” She also commented on having to hear the defendant say in court that it was a traumatic experience for him.

Deakin-White inflicted ‘horrific injuries’ on Ms Parsons on April 25, 2019 by striking her repeatedly with a two foot long metal bar as she was defenceless in the shower. She took more than 30 minutes to die in the bathtub after he left the flat, setting the burglar alarm and locking the door behind him.

The court heard that Deakin-White was unemployed and financially and emotionally dependent on Ms Parsons. Various witnesses testified that she had became increasing unhappy in her relationship with him, including his cross-dressing fetish – the Daily Mail reports ‘he had a Facebook page featuring him as an alter-ego called Jane.’

Having met someone else, Ms Parsons was in the process of leaving Deakin-White; this is widely acknowledged as the most dangerous time for women who are in relationships with domestic abusers. In the UK, two women a week are murdered by current or former male partners.

The family of Ms Parsons described her as “the kindest soul” on their fundraiser page to bring her body back home to Australia, adding that “Amy was adventurous, intelligent, kind-hearted, down-to-earth and loved by all who knew her.”

At Deakin-White’s sentencing, Ms Parsons’ sister also spoke of her family’s grief and described Ms Parsons as the “bright light” of the family and a “beautiful person”. “Nothing could have prepared me to deal with this loss,” she said. “All of our family are as heartbroken as it is possible to be.” She also spoke movingly of how their last image of Amy from the mortuary will never leave them.

The judge noted Deakin-White’s similarity to “many angry, jealous, resentful men” and told him “Your view was that if you can’t have her, no-one can have her, and you killed her.”

“There is no sentence I can pass upon you today that will bring back Miss Parsons – a young, successful, vivacious and kind-hearted young woman, whose life was brutally taken by you.”

The UK National Domestic Abuse Helpline team is available any time, day or night on Freephone 0808 2000 247

A very long list of trans-identified males convicted of violence and/or sexual violence against women and children is available in this post

All cases of trans-identified males that involve domestic violence are collected here

Photo credit: Met Police

Media reports

BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-50560623 archive

The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/27/amy-parsons-family-of-australian-woman-murdered-in-london-to-appeal-former-fiancees-sentence archive

Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7726805/Cross-dressing-Psycho-killer-Roderick-Deakin-White-jailed-murdering-girlfriend-London.html archive

The Age https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/australian-woman-s-secret-lover-was-warned-off-before-alleged-murder-court-20191031-p535yj.html archive

The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/02/amy-parsons-case-roderick-deakin-white-faces-london-court-over-of-australian-fiancee archive

Daily Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/30/royal-opera-house-designer-murdered-partner-following-unhappiness/ archive

Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7630973/Roderick-Deakin-White-murdered-Amy-Parsons-arguing-cross-dressing-fetish.html archive

Daily Record https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/cross-dresser-tried-kill-himself-20756719 archive