Local newspaper reporters are in an incredibly difficult position here. They’re bound by IPSO and guided by the NUJ to use whichever pronouns the criminal wants them to. We earn under 25k. There’s no way any of us can afford to resign over this on principle.
I’m a court reporter have been in several of these types of cases (I make a point of going to them) and have had several stand-up rows with my editor but ultimately we are bound by IPSO and I’d rather local papers cover the stories using incorrect pronouns than not at all.
In my experience, judges order all people in the court room to use the preferred pronouns and journalists, when quoting them, cannot and should not change a direct quote. To do so would be in contempt of court.
And also in my personal experience, and to the best of my knowledge without exception, if they’re male on the court list their crimes are recorded as male and they’re in the male prison estate even if they are calling themselves Pixie or whatever.
The way I get around this is to use no pronouns at all in stories like this if I can help it. It often takes me ages to write the copy and the phrasing can sometimes look a bit odd but I’d rather do that than use incorrect pronouns or get bollocked by IPSO.
The Derby Telegraph journalist only refers to the defendant as ‘she’ twice, which implies to me that they have taken some considerable care and know exactly what’s going on here.
Newspapers are horrifically understaffed and to physically get to court at all these days is so rare. Someone has made an effort to go along to this case, and they’ve even taken a photographer to get a pic to make the gender of the offender VERY clear to their readers. Having a go at the reporter will just make local newspapers less likely to cover cases like this.
It’s probably wiser to reserve the rage for the regulators that encourage this type of pervert to ‘identify’ as female without question.