Unnamed 43yr old transgender murderer

Silhouette image via Wikimedia Commons

In May 2022, media coverage revealed that a trans-identified male prisoner serving a life sentence for murder at HMP Bronzefield (a women’s prison run by Sodexo) had been transferred to HMP Downview – the women’s prison with a designated wing for male prisoners with a gender recognition certificate (GRC) who present a level of risk too great to be managed in the general population of the female estate.

Further details on the prisoner’s murder conviction are unknown.

The transfer was necessary because the prisoner was reportedly ‘caught having drunken sex with a female inmate, leading to an urgent investigation by prison bosses.’ A prison whistleblower also told the Daily Mail that there was another allegation that the same prisoner committed a sexual assault against a second female prisoner, but the Ministry of Justice said they had no record of a complaint.  The prisoner had also allegedly been overheard saying, ‘I’m going to f*** you’ to one prisoner, and, on another occasion, said: ‘I love p**** – why would I want to be in a man’s prison?’ 

Despite the well known phenomenon of sex offenders using alcohol as a weapon to incapacitate potential victims, little comment was made in the coverage about the involvement of (illegally brewed) alcohol, nor of the age difference between the trans-identified male prisoner (who is 43) and the much younger female prisoner. And why was a trans-identified male prisoner with a record of fatal violence deemed suitable for incarceration in a women’s prison?

This case has reportedly precipitated Justice Secretary Dominic Raab’s proposed policy of blocking ‘transgender prisoners with male genitalia’ from serving time in women’s jails and requiring ministerial sign-off of any transfer, thereby introducing some much needed accountability for decisions that affect the safety of female prisoners. However, in the past Raab has defended his description of feminists as ‘obnoxious bigots’ so it remains to be seen if a) the policy will be implemented and b) actually protect women.

There have been seven confirmed sex attacks of female prisoners by transgender inmates in recent years and below is a list of known serious problems and wholly predictable abuse of women that have resulted from placing violent trans-identified male prisoners in women’s prisons:

  • Stephen Wood/Karen White (no GRC) – the male rapist who sexually assaulted multiple women in HMP New Hall before being transferred to a men’s prison
  • Kyle Lockwood/Kayleigh Louise Woods (no GRC) – the male murderer (of a woman) who secured a transfer to a female prison (HMP Eastwood Park) who then started a sexual relationship with a female prisoner within weeks, before being transferred back to a men’s prison
  • Martin Ponting/Jessica Winfield – the male rapist who had to be segregated from female inmates at HMP Bronzefield after making ‘unwanted advances’ i.e. sexually threatening female prisoners
  • Prisoner J – the male rapist accused of sexual assault of a female prisoner at HMP Bronzefield
  • Peter Laing/Paris Green – the male murderer who, within weeks of conviction, was sexually pursuing female prisoners at both HMP Cornton Vale and the women’s wing of HMP Edinburgh before eventually being moved to the men’s section of the jail.
  • Shaun Pudwell/Michelle Lewin – the predatory paedophile who was transferred to the female estate at HMP Peterborough (which houses both adult women and female young offenders) before having gender recognition surgery. The women were reportedly terrified of Pudwell/Lewin.
  • Craig/Emma Bowman – a prisoner with a conviction for violence against a woman was moved from HMP New Hall after sexually pursuing a female prisoner and stopping hormone treatment.
  • Paul Hayes/Lisa Woodhall – the violent male prisoner who disrupted a female therapeutic community (TC) at HMP Send by pursuing a sexual relationship with another member of the group and then told the psychologist that sexual contact was followed briefly by a desire to kill. Another prisoner was moved for her own safety after complaining that Woodhall stalked her. 

See also Keep Prisons Single Sex’s article on males in women’s prisons https://kpssinfo.org/males-in-womens-prisons/

A full list of transgender individuals who have killed/attempted to kill others in the UK is available here

Media reports

Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10864613/Transgender-murderer-caught-having-drunken-sex-female-inmate.html archive

LBC https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/trans-murderer-caught-drunken-sex-female-inmate/ archive

Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11088219/Trans-prisoners-barred-womens-jails-strict-new-policy-proposed-Dominic-Raab.html archive

Daily Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/08/06/trans-prisoners-will-not-housed-women/ archive

Spiked https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/11/why-did-we-ever-let-male-rapists-into-womens-prisons/ archive