Brighton hammer thief spared jail because transgender

A certain group certainly seems to have a monopoly of the current situation as it stands

I’m waiting for the next edition of a very popular board game to have this as their new get out of jail free card.

Appalling. This violent thug needs to be in a male prison.

My guess is that the judge thinks getting a GRC would magically remove the tendency to violence because this would transform them into a non-violent woman.

Maybe he thinks it’s like when teachers award the gold star certificate that week to the most badly behaved boy in the class because he managed to sit still for a whole 5 minutes without being disruptive in the hope that this will improve his behaviour? Meanwhile, the rest of the well-behaved class rightfully thinks it’s unfair.

Especially in a climate of liberalising the self-identifying of having gender dysphoria and the growing risk of naysayers being denounced as transphobic.

That is the $64k question, AbsintheFriends, and I suspect the answer is yes. Women's crime stats will go up. I hope the data will be accurately disaggregated so crimes committed by transwomen can be removed for comparison. What violent male criminal wouldn't arrange to have rapid onset gender dysphoria of it keeps them at liberty?

quite literally a get out of jail free card. That’s proper shocking. Can this be appealed - unduly lenient sentence etc?

Was this violent crime recorded as having being committed by a woman?

Reading the article I'm left with the impression that the judge thought he was sending the violent criminal to a women's prison and was fine with that. It was only when he realised the violent criminal would go to a men's prison that he changed his mind.

Also, I don't see how this comment fits in with the decision-making:

“In light of this information I have come to the conclusion that in your particular case it allows me to hope for some form of rehabilitation.”

Why would the lack of a GRC mean that there's greater hope for rehabilitation? My guess is that the judge thinks getting a GRC would magically remove the tendency to violence because this would transform them into a non-violent woman.

But the poor dear would be at risk in a mens prisons.

(Maybe if they could keep the clawhammer to defend themselves?)

• Unpunished

So on this basis all women prisoners must be at risk in any prison where a biological man is placed? So we need the immediate release of all women in prisons where there's a man who self identifies as a woman placed? Correct?

WTF

So rape is essentially unpublishable at this point & now Male violence has a get out clause. Fan-fucking-tastic

This needs to be stopped immediately. The government has got to intervene. And this judge needs to be sacked

Anyone know who else I should complain to? I don't have a clue who it should be.

Robert Buckland, Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary.

As Lord Chancellor, he has oversight of judge accountability and as Justice Secretary, he has responsibility for courts and prisons.

So the offender would be vulnerable in a prison with men in it, but women wouldn't be?

Fuck all of this shit. I wrote angrily and repeatedly to my MP about potential issues in the prison system several years ago; she was utterly dismissive (Thanks Kerry McCarthy!) in every conceivable way. I didn't think of this bloody issue though! I will be writing to her again to highlight this.

Anyone know who else I should complain to? I don't have a clue who it should be.

Anyone do Twitter? (I'm a technophobe...) this needs sharing. Lord Lucas seems a good bet at the moment...

I think Leila Le Fey used their powers of witchcraft to influence the judge...

For crying out loud

So this person actually took the claw hammer with them - rather proves intent, I think - and their barrister waved the magic "get out of jail" card so the judge crumbled.

Oh dear, oh dear. I hope the new Lord Chancellor has a word with him and sharpish.

Transwomen have been held in male prisons for decades, to my certain knowledge, and prison staff have managed this type of situation successfully for just as long. Funnily enough, previous generations of judges never flinched at jailing the violent either, regardless of how the offender identified.

Nothing is going to change until it starts directly happening to high-profile figures or their families.

I hope that judge gets mugged or has his house burgled by a man who, before sentencing, starts to self identify as a woman and avoids jail by another judge, for the same reason. It would really serve him right.

I should add: a non-violent mugging or burglary before I get accused of anything.

What an insult to the victim

The fact that they were carrying a bloody claw hammer?!!! Nasty.

So is this going to be an excuse now - we can't bring ourselves to put you in a prison with others of your sex because that wouldn't be nice for you, and we can't put you in isolation in that prison because that's not very nice either and we would love to affirm you and put you in woman's prison but you don't have a GRA and we aren't going to examine you to check whether you still have your penis so how about we don't jail you at all?

So does this strengthen or weaken the argument for a simpler GRA process? With the 'reformed' process this person could just go and get one and also no one would have to question you on whether you still had a penis because IT WOULDN'T MATTER. You could go to a woman's prison anyway because you Self-ID as a woman. And you're probably no threat because you didn't actually use the hammer and you were threatening a man with it and therefore there is no indication that you would be nasty to other women prisoners.

Could the judge have been trying to flag up the total insanity of the current situation? They are exposing a fucking giant loop hole either way.