Alan Baker (#2)/Alex Stewart

Alan Baker / Alex Stewart, a violent male who identifies as a trans woman, was jailed for life for murdering John Weir in August 2013.

Baker stabbed Mr Weir at least 16 times in the chest at his home in Bonhill, West Dunbartonshire. At the High Court in Dumbarton, Baker was sentenced to a minimum of 19 years in jail before being able to apply for parole.

Baker, 25, murdered Mr Weir, 36, after having met via an online gay dating service. It has since been revealed that Baker abused five other ex-partners, but no reports were made to the police. Judge Lord Boyd said Baker was guilty of a “wicked and brutal” attack.

A pre-sentencing report had stated Baker had suffered from “emotional and sexual problems” and STV reported that the prisoner grinned while being led handcuffed to the cells to begin the sentence.

Despite Pink News reporting that the court was told “Baker had been undergoing gender confirmation treatment at the time of the killing,” their coverage refers to the defendant as a man, as does The Sun’s, STV’s and the BBC’s reports. Pink News also discussed Baker’s record of domestic violence in the context of gay relationships in this article, indicating they consider Baker to be a man not a trans woman.

The Sun also quotes sources in the jail as saying that “fellow cons in the female-only wing reckon Baker took on his new identity purely to get special treatment from jail bosses” and that Baker is going by the name of Alex Stewart.

Not to be confused with Alan Baker, another male who identifies as a trans woman who was convicted of attempted murder in 2008.

In 2018 Baker/Stewart (who has still not undergone any medical transition while in prison) was reported as winning a “Miss Fitness” trophy, a coveted sports tournament within HMP Greenock where the winner receives a goodie bag of items such as chocolate, crisps, snacks, coffee and tea, juice, soap and toiletries which are valuable currency in the jail.

A source was quoted in the Daily Record as saying “The rest of [the women prisoners] shouldn’t have bothered even entering.” “It was surreal. Everybody knew it wasn’t very fair, but nobody was allowed to say it.

The source also revealed that Baker / Stewart is not segregated from female prisoners in the showers and female prisoners are uncomfortable with the policy.

“The women inmates have had to accept that Stewart is being allowed to live as a woman, despite not having had surgery.”

“That means she is in the showers at the same time as other inmates, which some have found quite awkward.”

*Update May 2018*

Baker/Stewart reportedly formed a relationship with fellow trans-identified male murderer Daniel/Sophie Eastwood who was then moved to HMP Polmont after what the media euphemistically call being “openly intimate in front of others” while outside and “letting things all hang out” i.e. subjecting female prisoners to witness them having sex in HMP Greenock – a form of sexual exhibitionism. Both must have been in the female prisoners wing of HMP Greenock as Baker/Stewart reportedly beat female prisoners in a fitness competition at the jail in February 2108.

*Update January 2021*

The Daily Record reported that child murderer Nyomi Fee proposed to Baker/Stewart in HMP Greenock (a prison housing both male and female offenders in Scotland) in December 2020 and that they are now engaged. Fee, 32, was jailed for 24 years in 2016 after she subjected her two-year-old stepson Liam to appalling abuse before murdering him in 2014.

*Update February 2023*

Baker/Stewart featured in a Times article on 15 February 2023 in which Scottish prison authorities have been criticised for endangering vulnerable women after it emerged that four of the five transgender inmates held in the female prison estate are murderers. The fifth trans prisoner is believed to be child sex offender named Harryetta Thompson who has now been segregated from female prisoners after they discovered Thompson’s offending history.

Kate Coleman, of Keep Prisons Single Sex, said: “These are violent male offenders, all four of whom have caused significant problems in the female estate . . . including sexual exhibitionism (Stewart and Eastwood), harassment and stalking (Eastwood), sexual threats and inappropriate sexual relationships (Green) and violent assault (Young).”

Photo: Spindrift via BBC