A transgender prisoner is accused of sexually assaulting four female inmated at a West Yorkshire prison days after she was jailed.

The first alleged attack is said to have taken place within a week of her arrival at New Hall jail in Wakefield.

She had not yet had gender reassignment surgery when she was jailed in the women’s prison, according to a report in The Sun.

The prisoner has now been moved out of the female jail and into a Category B men’s jail (Picture: Getty)

A source told the newspaper she was ‘visibly aroused’ when she allegedly assaulted the first inmate.


The prisoner was originally sent on remand to the female prison after a judge heard she had been living as a woman for more than two years.

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But one of her alleged victims, who she is said to have become friends with, claims she stood next to her, touching her arm while her erect penis was visible from the top of her trousers.



Another alleged victim claims the prisoner made inappropriate comments about oral sex before giving her a bear hug.

A third claims she was kissed on the neck.

The accusations of sexual assault have resulted in the prisoner now being sent to a Category B men’s jail, according to The Sun.

New Hall women’s prison in Wakefield, where the alleged assaults took place (Picture: Google)

How many transgender prisoners are there?

In November 2016, the Ministry of Justice published the first official statistics on transgender prisoners.

A data collection exercise in March/April 2016 showed that there were 70 transgender prisoners in 33 of the 123 public and private prisons in England and Wales.

That has reportedly increased to 125 transgender prisoners in England and Wales at the end of March 2017.

In November 2016, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) published a revised policy on transgender prisoners.

NOMS had initiated a review of the issue early in 2015 but later broadened its scope following the deaths of two transgender inmates and another case where a transgender woman was first sent to a male prison, but was later transferred to a women’s prison after a public petition.

Policy guidelines for England and Wales from 2011 had stated that prisoners should normally be located in the prison estate of their gender as recognised by UK law.

For transgender prisoners, a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) would normally be necessary.

There was some flexibility for trans prisoners who were ‘sufficiently advanced in the gender reassignment process’.

New guidelines

The Women and Equalities Committee looked at the issue of transgender prisoners as part of their wider report on Transgender Equality, published in January 2016.

The Committee said there was a ‘clear risk of harm’ where trans prisoners are not located in a prison ‘appropriate to their acquired/affirmed gender’.

The Government published a report on their policy review in November 2016 which acknowledged that the treatment of transgender people in the criminal justice system had not kept pace with wider social views.

Whilst earlier 2011 guidelines had emphasised the role of GRCs and medical interventions, the report noted that many transgender people successfully lived their lives without these.

The new policy needed to ‘take as its starting presumption a wish to respect someone in the gender in which they identify’.

The new policy guidelines, Prison Service Instruction 17/2016 states that ‘all transgender prisoners (irrespective of prison location) must be allowed to express the gender with which they identify’.



A decision to locate them in a prison which does not accord with their legal gender can only be made following a Transgender Case Board.

Those who wish to be placed in a prison location which is not consistent with their legally recognised gender must provide evidence of living in the gender with which they identify.

Assessments will be made on a case by case basis.