Six forces said the official record would state the gender an arrested person chose to identify as

Police forces are recording suspected and convicted rapists as female if they no longer wish to identify with their male birth sex.

Six forces, including South Yorkshire and Thames Valley, disclosed under freedom of information laws that if someone is arrested for or convicted of rape, the official record will state the gender they chose to identify themselves as.

A further five forces — Durham, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk as well as British Transport Police — did not answer the question directly but each said they recorded gender in line with the person’s wishes.

Nicola Williams, director of Fair Play for Women, which submitted the requests, said: “You can’t get much more of a male crime than rape. It would be highly offensive to a