Well this was totally predictable

The article doesn't say

I’m not opening a Daily Mail link, did she ask to be put in a male ward, or did the staff say she should be there because of her delusion of being male?

I think the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 comes into play here? She was a service user and should have been protected

Staff will end up being disciplined but it’s the policy makers which should be jailed for this - it’s a corporate failing

Agree - the policy makers should be jailed - they've DELIBERATELY been breaking the law for years. Decimating the ability to safeguard. They're offering up already unhappy women to be raped. Deliberately, knowingly. Causing more harm.

Exactly! She had been detained under the mental Health Act for her own safety! What was safe about this?

NHS Policy is at fault here. Staff couldn’t question this woman’s choice and advice her of risk without questioning her gender identity which is a disciplinary offence. Family members cant intervene because the NHS policy is to ignore them in favour of the patient. NHS policy says that the patient’s preference must be respected …. Staff will end up being disciplined but it’s the policy makers which should be jailed for this - it’s a corporate failing

A very common arrangement is male and female single sex¹ sleeping accommodation, with a shared daytime recreation area. Control of who goes into the sleeping areas is frequently poor, and bedroom doors are not lockable.

In theory there are always staff keeping an eye on things in the shared area, but in practice this offers minimal protection (and only against actual physical assault; not leering, commenting, threats, fear ...).

¹ See usual caveats and disclaimers.

to be fair to the staff, it is totally possible that nobody spoke up because of the culture of "be kind" and cancellation and job losses.

And that is why the NHS in general, and the individual trusts in particular must obey the law. It protects their staff and it protects their patients.

Not be kind (it is not kind to put a woman in a secure male psychiatric ward), you mean be submissive and do what they say.

The NHS policies make this the most likely IMO. They deliberately set up situations where safeguarding comes last.

I really hope the NHS is prosecuted for this, and individual senior staff members lose their jobs. Until this happens, nothing will change.

As PP have said, we only know about this because of the court case. There will be so many more women abused in this way, I am sure (some posters giving examples upthread).

All the NHS policies pretty much saying men's feelings come first, no matter how creepy or criminal, this is how it ends. And the fact is we don't know how many rapes there are as a result of these polices because we know they're covering it up.

I think the 4th reason applies often. Be kind, treat them as they say they are or face transphobia accusations

They are sectioned because they are ill. Are you saying ill people are not nice? Some might be lovely but their illness means they want to kill themselves..

Yes. They are. Both men and mentally ill.

They are mentally ill men.

Also, playing devils advocate, these are men with mental health issues on lots and lots of drugs. Putting a vulnerable woman in with them is like leaving a bottle of whiskey on the table. These aren’t nice men, I’m not excusing them, but the reason they are sectioned is because they are not safe outside in the world but they also need protecting from their own worst impulses. That’s why the drugs cupboard has a lock on it.

The biggest danger here being the NHS affirmation of delusions and ignoring the mental health elephant in the room.

There was at one point a female in men's prison in Scotland. Unless it was a typo, which is possible.

In case anyone forgot Scotland is mad.

Heartbreaking. These kids need help. And actually enraging, because the NHS have created this stupid ass situation where they endanger vulnerable people.

It is South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. It was audited by us and is typical of mental health trusts - see my earlier post.

There are lots of questions on Reddit from younger transgender people who are expecting to be an inpatient on a mental health unit, asking if they will be put on the ward aligned with their chosen gender, rather than their sex. The whole experience is fraught with anxiety, the dysphoria is the main concern, not bodily safety, or the dignity of other patients.
Considering the amount transphobic events are clung on to and endlessly referenced, you’d think the rape of a trans person would be a crime to be widely condemned and deplored. It’s radio silence in trans land. Probably because it’s a woman getting raped and that’s a reasonable cost of business to them.

This is another example where tip toeing around a polite social nicety of going along with someone’s delusion is not kind, it’s dangerous.

You're right of course that a woman can't legally be a rapist but a woman can still be prosecuted and convicted of rape if she helps an offender. From the CPS website:

"Legally, a person without a penis cannot commit rape, but a female may be guilty of rape if they assist a male perpetrator in an attack."

These prosecutions of women for rape are very rare. I recall a woman convicted of rape because she acted as look-out for men who raped a woman on a canal towpath.

Psychiatry has not somehow got caught up in the transgender politics - it is, and has always been, a huge part in creating the whole issue. It is psychiatrists who assess people and make the decision to refer them on for surgery. It is psychiatry that tells men they're really women and women they're really men. NHS psychiatry has huge power in this. Imagine - an NHS psychiatrist telling an adolescent who feels they're uncomfortable with their sexuality and/or their body, that this is real when it's the very definition of a delusion.

Detentions are easily enacted and have been rising for years. The staff are obsessed with dangerousness. I was detained after being beaten up and my mother said I'd threatened my brother with a knife. These unsubstantiated allegations are accepted without evidence routinely.

Psychiatric wards have always been dangerous places and sexual assaults are common. There has even been gang rape. Sky News and the Independent did some excellent investigation of this a couple of years ago. Sometimes staff are the perpetrators. The female deputy warden of a psychiatric hostel I was in was abusing some of the under age residents and an RMN was raping a girl in a psychiatric hospital. In both places, girls were selling sex on the street. This was all done openly. So whilst these alleged rapes of a woman on a men's ward is dreadful, it's not surprising to some of us.

Yes, that's what I thought - the patients in there were unable to move around and there were stringent controls on visitors.

Yes, it is.

I'd also expect a mixed-sex ward to be designed differently from a single sex ward, for example by have separate male and female sleeping areas with the staff desks between the two.

This was supposed to be a male-only ward.

As far as I'm aware there are still mixed psychiatric wards.

I've always thought this was dangerous for female patients.