Leila Le Fey

A trans woman who threatened shop staff with a claw hammer escaped prison after a court heard there was no way to confirm her gender.

Leila Le Fey, 40, admitted entering a Budgens store in Brighton last year in a bid to steal alcohol, and brandished the “terrifying” weapon at Enoch Adetayo, the shop’s manager, before assaulting him.

However, she was spared a prison after a judge reversed a custodial sentence which would have sent her to a men's prison.

Lewes Crown Court heard that Le Fey had completed gender-reassignment but had not yet obtained a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) to that effect.

As a result, despite living and identifying as a woman, Le Fey would have had to serve her sentence at a male-only jail because the Home Office and Prisons Service would not recognise her as a woman without a GRC. This would not only have created intractable accommodation problems but also caused substantial and unintended trauma for Le Fey.

However in an eleventh-hour U-turn, Judge Stephen Mooney called Le Fey back to Lewes Crown Court just an hour after jailing her for six months.

He reversed his decision to send her to prison after hearing that the only way Le Fey could prove her new gender would be an "undignified examination", one which court staff were not prepared to do, her barrister said.

"Issues have now arisen,” Judge Mooney said. "We live in a society which acknowledges and embraces diversity and allows and encourages people to live the life they want to.

"Sometimes society does not make the necessary or appropriate adjustments in all ways it can to reflect the adjustments of society as a whole.

"Having reflected again upon the impact an immediate custodial sentence would have, the difficulties there are and the intractable problems the prison service would face, I have reconsidered whether imprisonment must be immediate."

Lewes Crown Court on Lewes High Street - © betty finney / Alamy Stock Photo /© betty finney / Alamy Stock Photo

Barrister Rebecca Upton said Le Fey did not have certified evidence of her gender reassignment and would have to go to the male-only Lewes Prison.

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She could not be kept in solitary confinement there and would be vulnerable in a male-only prison, Ms Upton said.

"When you took out the claw hammer it must have been terrifying," Judge Mooney said.

He told her there was "no excuse" to wave the hammer and assault Mr Adetayo.

Earlier, Rowan Jenkins, prosecuting, said Le Fey went into the store at 4am on November 6 to steal the wine. Mr Adetayo took the wine off her and challenged her, at which point Le Fey pulled out the hammer from under her other arm. She tried to grab another bottle of wine and leave but police arrived and arrested her.

Ms Upton said her client has battled with drink and drug addictions and kept herself out of trouble since 2014 before a relapse last year.

Le Fey, of Providence Place, Brighton, who admitted common assault and possession of an offensive weapon, was given a six-month suspended sentence, with 30 rehabilitation sessions.

The court heard that Le Fey has two previous convictions for possession of a knife in public and more than 50 previous convictions.

Had Judge Mooney not reversed his decision to send her to prison, Le Fey would have received the mandatory 6 month sentence for possessing a weapon in public following that 2014 conviction.

Judges have the legal power to exercise discretion when handing down custodial sentences for crimes which would usually land a defendant in prison.

If a person could be seen to be made particularly vulnerable by serving a prison sentence so much so that their sentence will be more severe, then judges can take that into account.

Judge Mooney was appointed to be a Circuit Judge in April 2019. However in his short time in the post, he has already had one of his sentences reviewed and issued an apology following accusations he was too lenient.

The Attorney General reviewed a sentence he gave in October 2019 to two young men who bottled a Korean student in Brighton in October 2017

He gave a teenage boy, Bradley Garrett, a two-year suspended sentence which was challenged by the public for being lenient

In January - he apologised "profusely" for making a mistake and re-sentenced him to a three-year youth rehabilitation order with intensive supervision.