A convicted paedophile and rapist who was transferred to a women’s prison after he said he was transgender, sexually assaulted multiple women within days of the move.
A man who calls himself Karen White pleaded guilty to repeatedly raping a woman in 2016, having previously been convicted of a sex attack on a child in 2001.
He has now been accused of exploiting a rule which allows men who say they are women to be remanded into the prison which matches their ‘gender identity’ at the Prison Service’s discretion.
‘Toxic political atmosphere’
Former neighbours said he “ruled” their estate “with fear”, explaining that when an elderly man referred to White as ‘he’, White called the police to report it as a hate crime.
Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform said there was currently a “toxic political environment where some campaigners are pushing very hard on trans rights”.
She said there is “emerging evidence that certain men are jumping on the trans bandwagon to access, and harm, very vulnerable women in prison”.
‘Irreconcilable’
Writing for The Times, columnist Janice Turner was outraged by the news of White’s assaults.
She said: “Confining a rapist in a women’s prison, among vulnerable inmates including rape victims, is like locking a fox in a henhouse”.
According to Turner, the case “illustrates a principle now hard-baked into schools, prisons and across the public sector: that women’s physical safety is less important than ‘gender expression’”.
She said it might be “time to acknowledge that the physical safety of women and the desire for trans prisoners to affirm their gender identity are irreconcilable”.
Disgraceful
The National Chair of the Prison Officer’s Association Mark Fairhurst, said placing the known rapist among women prisoners was “disgraceful”, and demanded an inquiry.
White has been moved back to an all-male prison.