www.thesun.co.uk/news/6804433/transgender-lag-sexually-abused-four-female-prisoners-days-after-arriving-at-west-yorkshire-jail/
A TRANSGENDER prisoner has been accused of sexually assaulting four female inmates after being sent to a women’s prison.
The first of the alleged attacks took place within days of her arriving at New Hall jail, Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
The inmate was sent there despite not having had gender reassignment surgery.
It is claimed she was visibly aroused when she allegedly assaulted the first inmate.
She was originally sent on remand to New Hall women’s prison after a judge heard how she had been living as a female for more than two years.
The alleged attacks will reignite the debate over whether transgender prisoners should be sent to women’s jails before they have had surgery.
It is claimed the first attack happened within days of the transgender prisoner’s arrival at high-security New Hall, Wakefield, West Yorks.
The alleged victim — an inmate with whom she had struck up a friendship — said the remand prisoner stood close to her and touched her arm while her erect penis was sticking out from the top of her trousers.
It is alleged she subsequently made inappropriate comments about oral sex to another prisoner before giving her a bear hug.
A third alleged victim says she was also attacked.
And a fourth woman prisoner claims she was kissed on the neck.
The transgender prisoner has now been sent to a Category B men’s jail.
The latest figures show there were 125 transgender prisoners in England and Wales at the end of March 2017, up from 70 a year earlier.
At the moment transgender women can only legally change their gender on their birth certificate if they have been medically diagnosed with gender dysphoria and have lived as a woman for two years.
This is the rule often used by judges when they are deciding whether to send transgender prisoners to a male or female prison.
Under current rules transgender inmates are able to dictate how they are both searched and addressed by prison officers.
They can also benefit from greater freedom in how they dress and can shower and wash clothes in private.
Prison authorities have been forced to issue new regulations following a rapid rise in the number of transgender inmates and concern about their treatment.
Transgender prisoners first won the right to have gender surgery in 1999.
Lifer and convicted kidnapper John Pilley, now 64, and five other prisoners launched legal action to have surgery on the NHS.
Last year The Sun told how a double rapist who had £10,000 NHS gender surgery in prison was moved to a women’s jail.
Jessica Winfield, born Martin Ponting, attacked two girls but is now in HMP Bronzefield, Surrey.