Andrew Way/Miss Gin
Andrew James Way (aka Andrew Bryant/Miss Gin) a male drag queen, was convicted in 2023 at Caernarfon Crown Court of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and repeatedly breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO). Way was apparently subject to a lifelong SHPO after previously being convicted at a court in Bristol in November 2007 but has since had unsupervised contact with young children. A two-year-old child’s mother was apparently unaware of Way’s SHPO and previous offending.
Way, 61, was caught by community predator hunting groups after sending ‘highly sexualised’ messages over Snapchat and WhatsApp to a decoy profile that was posing as a 14 year old boy. Despite the profile clearly stating their age, Way sent images of his genitals to the decoy. For other examples of trans-identified male sex offenders caught by paedophile hunters, see this tag.
The judge said Way had ‘utter disregard’ for court orders and sentenced Way to 34 months for all offences – and also warned any future breaches of his new sexual harm prevention order would result in years behind bars.
After Way’s arrest, the first-ever gay Pride event in Welshpool, Powys was cancelled as it was being organised by Way. Note that being a registered sex offender had been no bar to Way organising the Pride event. See this tag for other examples of trans-identified male sex offenders involved with Pride events.
The BBC received criticism after initially publishing an article entitled ‘Ex-drag queen caught in paedophile hunters’ sting operation’ (archive version here) and then changing it to remove reference to Way’s involvement in the Pride event in Welshpool and amending the headline to remove reference to Way being a drag queen (edited version here).
In 2019 Way appeared on the ITV court show Judge Rinder using the name Andrew Bryant, accused of not paying a fellow drag queen he had booked for some of his performances. During the show, Way/Bryant claimed that he paid the complainant £150 for two cancelled shows but whilst being grilled by Judge Rinder, he admitted that there was no truth to the claim. After hearing evidence from both sides, Judge Rinder awarded the complainant £150 of his total claim. A puff piece in local media covered Way’s retirement as a ‘drag legend’ in December 2019.
Image credit: North Wales Police/Wales News Service via Daily Mail
Media reports
Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12476901/BBC-bosses-pressure-explain-news-report-convicted-paedophile-sent-sexual-messages-14-year-old-boy-edited-remove-mentions-drag-queen-career.html archive
Fox News https://www.foxnews.com/media/bbc-removes-pedophiles-drag-queen-pride-event-background-arrest-report archive
BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-66610787 (edited version archive, original version archive)
Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12446579/Drag-queen-called-Miss-Gin-snared-paedophile-hunters-fooled-thinking-talking-teenage-boy-jailed-34-months.html archive
North Wales Live https://www.dailypost.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/north-wales-drag-queen-labels-17350175 archive
North Wales Live https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/north-wales-drag-legend-reveals-17379575 archive
Reduxx https://reduxx.info/uk-drag-queen-who-was-set-to-host-welshpools-first-pride-parade-arrested-during-predator-sting/ archive