Malcolm Hewitt
Malcolm/Mal Hewitt, a violent male who later identified as a transgender woman in prison, was convicted in 2007 at Newport Crown Court of two charges of indecently touching a child under 13 and one charge of inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity. The child was a female toddler.
Judge Neil Bidder told Hewitt he posed a high risk of harm to young girls.
Hewitt, a lorry driver, received an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) with a minimum term of 3 years. After the trial, it was revealed that Hewitt had previously been convicted in June 1998, at Wolverhampton Crown Court, of indecent assault of a female under 14 and three offences of gross indecency with three different girls aged between seven and 14.
The family of the toddler that Hewitt sexually assaulted from 2006 to 2007 made a formal complaint to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) alleging that Gwent Police failed to adequately manage Hewitt on the sex offenders’ register in line with legislation or force policy. Hewitt had not been monitored at all after being released from prison, enabling the assaults on the young girl.
The IPCC’s investigation reported in 2009 and upheld the complaint, adding that the force failed to take appropriate action, ‘endangering the welfare of the children living there’. They also found ‘organisational failings within the force’s management of sexual offenders’. There had been no supervision by Gwent Police during the five years Hewitt, a dangerous sexual predator, lived in the Newport area, yet the Daily Mail reported that no disciplinary action was taken against officers ‘due to deficiencies across the force.’
Hewitt was initially incarcerated at HMP Parc but was transferred to HMP Littlehey, a men’s sex offender prison in 2014. Hewitt began identifying as transgender in 2016 and requested referral to gender identity services in Nottingham, but died of natural causes (lung cancer) in 2017, aged 63, while on the clinic waiting list. Link to Prison Ombudsman fatal incident report dated 14 March 2019 (which describes Hewitt as ‘female’) here
This tag collates other violent and/or sexually violent trans-identified males serving long sentences who have transitioned in prison.
Media reports
South Wales Argus https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/1679713.man-jailed-for-sex-assault-on-young-girl/ archive
Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1184221/Convicted-paedophile-left-free-attack-girl-4-police-monitoring-failed.html archive
Wales Online https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/dad-sue-police-failing-protect-2106393 archive
South Wales Argus https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/4379562.gwent-police-investigation-police-sorry-for-failure-deputy-chief-constable/ archive
BBC ‘Convicted paedophile abused girl’ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/6962744.stm archive