Alex Horwood/Lynsay Watson

Police constable Lynsay Watson (formerly known as Alex Horwood), a male who identifies as a transgender woman, was found guilty of gross misconduct and dismissed without notice from Leicestershire Police in October 2023. Watson was also added to a barred list which prevents that person being rehired by any other police force.

Watson, 56, sent more than 1,200 abusive and derogatory messages to a member of the public via social media over an 18-month period, calling him a Nazi, fascist and bigot, and doctoring photographs of him. Though arrested in 2022 related to this course of conduct, Watson was not charged, and remained a serving officer until finally dismissed a year later.

The victim was Harry Miller, the founder of campaign group Fair Cop, himself a former police officer. Watson also targeted a number of feminists and campaigners critical of transgender ideology. After being warned by superiors and told to tweet anonymously, Watson continued to abuse Mr Miller and set up multiple accounts in an attempt to evade identification, even posing as a fake version of the victim’s Fair Cop group on Twitter/X.

The judge agreed with the force’s solicitor that Watson’s actions were ‘intentional, deliberate, targeted and planned’ and that ‘an officer who is abusive towards individuals when their ideologies clash is undoubtedly going to cause significant harm to public confidence.’

Watson’s chequered history in various jobs in the army (Royal Signals), health service and police – and accompanying unsuccessful legal actions (including failing to win a sexual discrimination case after being refused a job with the Military Police) is available below via various archived news articles from the late nineties/early 2000s. Watson was previously dismissed from the British Transport Police and reportedly left an NHS job after self-identifying as female and concealing having had gender reassignment surgery.

Cases of trans-identified male offenders in the UK police force are available under this tag. These include the sex offender Nicholas/Stacey Pool and Kyle/Zoe Watts who was convicted of weapons and explosives charges in 2021.

*Update April 2025*

Following a court hearing in February 2025, Mrs Justice Hill dismissed a claim made by Watson that Greater Manchester Police (GMP) had been wrong to to take no further action against the political commentator Stuart Campbell (who runs the popular Wings Over Scotland website) regarding social media posts he had made on trans issues. In a victory for free speech, GMP’s decision made in November 2023 was ruled “both lawful and correct”, i.e. did not cross the threshold to be considered objectively ‘grossly offensive’. The judgment can be read here and a detailed post from Wings Over Scotland on the sorry saga is here.

The ruling came the same day the Supreme Court ruled that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex.

*Update September 2025*

Horwood/Watson was reported in The Daily Telegraph on 4 September as being responsible for the police complaint about three provocative tweets that resulted in Graham Linehan, the comedy writer, being arrested at Heathrow by five armed policemen on his return to the UK. The resulting worldwide media furore only succeeded in amplifying Mr Linehan’s posts on X/Twitter in April 2025 (see example, right, now seen by 2 million+ people) and bringing scrutiny to the police for acting as enforcers of unpleasant, often deranged cross-dressing men who wish to silence women and men like Mr Linehan who dare to disagree with them. This perceived police overreach resulted in the Met police chief saying they were ‘in [an] impossible position and should not be policing culture war debates’ and the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, suggesting that free speech laws need to be reviewed.

The article also details how court documents revealed that Horwood/Watson made complaints to the police about the author and feminist Helen Joyce, after she posted about her appearance on an Institute for Economic Affairs (IEA) discussion panel with Peter Tatchell and UK trans activist Fred/Freda Wallace, who appeared drunk and belligerent. Police apparently leaped to do Horwood/Watson’s bidding, investigating Ms Joyce for a potential “non-crime hate incident” relating to “malicious communications”, but officers soon began investigating the possibility of “harassment”. The investigation reportedly remains against Ms Joyce’s name and could show on an advanced DBS check, despite police taking no further action against the author.

Further reporting in The Telegraph the following day revealed that Horwood/Watson is also believed to be responsible for police visiting Cathy Larkman, a distinguished retired police superintendent, who had referred to the same trans activist, Fred/Freda Wallace, by his male name (i.e. his so-called “deadname”). The Telegraph describes Horwood/Watson as “a figure with a history of urging the authorities to pursue criminal investigations of people who are critical of gender ideology.”

The popular politics website, Wings Over Scotland, has posted a new comprehensive summary pointing out how much it is costing taxpayers for Horwood/Watson to pursue numerous failed court actions, judicial reviews and police investigations against opponents. The article was prompted by Horwood/Watson’s demand that Wings remove all articles mentioning him, pay him £50,000 and undertake never to write about him again.

Image via Harry Miller