Thames Valley Police has been slammed for referring to a suspected child abuser as a “woman”.
Matthew Barber, Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley, criticised his own police force for using 51-year-old Osareen Omoruyi’s “self-described gender” in a press release which “incorrectly states that a woman has been charged” with sexual assault.
Barber said it was “clearly wrong to describe the suspect as a woman”, who has now been placed in a male prison.
‘Risk’
The PCC stated: “The police and other criminal justice agencies must deal in facts, as best evidenced to them at the time. Any failure to do so risks damaging public confidence and overshadowing excellent policing in the interests of public safety.”
“In cases of serious sexual offending when public protection is at stake the vast majority of people will rightly expect the criminal justice system to deal in facts and nothing more.”
In response, Thames Valley Police reported that “his comments are being carefully considered and reviewed by the force”.
‘Hiding’
Earlier this month, the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) came under fire for hiding female prisoners’ views on allowing men to access women’s jails.
The SPS refused to publish survey results from a review of its 2014 guidance stating that “accommodation provided must be the one that best suits the person in custody’s needs and should reflect the gender in which the person in custody is currently living”.
In its updated policy, men who claim to be women will continue to be eligible for admission or transfer to a women’s prison unless they have a record of “violence against a female”.
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