The Daily Star Sunday has admitted its claims that child murderer Ian Huntley is transgender were never true The claims about Huntley’s gender identity came at a time when trans rights had been under heavy attack

The Daily Star Sunday has said claims it published about convicted killer Ian Huntley being transgender were false.

The tabloid had claimed in a story in April last year that Huntley demanded to be called “Nicola” by fellow inmates at his all-male facility, was wearing “a blonde woman’s wig” and “eyeliner” in front of other inmates, and identified as a woman.

Two years after first reporting claims that Huntley was seeking to transition, the newspaper has now admitted “there has never been a plan for him to change his gender identity”.

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Some equality campaigners argue the claims were published to whip up fears as the government considers changing the legal rules around gender self-identification.

Huntley is serving a life sentence for the murders of children Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells at Falkland Prison, Durham.

False claims

The false claims were first published on 15 January 2017.

Labelled as an exclusive, the Daily Star claimed that “Sick child killer Ian Huntley wants a sex change at the taxpayers’ expense so that he can spend the rest of his life in a female prison”.

On 8 April 2018, in the specific article the Daily Star Sunday has issued a correction for, the paper claimed the killer intended to join the Transgender Pathway programme in order to become legally recognised as a woman.

Two months ago, on 8 December, the paper claimed Huntley “is trying to prove to doctors that he is serious about going through with his sex change”.

The newspaper also wrote that the murderer was demanding a new dress and stockings for Christmas from pen-pals.

The source cited for the claims was an unnamed fellow inmate of Huntley at HMP Falkland – a Category A jail that houses serious offenders such as terrorists, murderers and rapists.

Printed clarification

Despite the multiple claims, the newspaper has only issued a clarification for its article dated 8 April 2018. This has been taken down from the site, but the articles dated 15 January 2017 and 8 December 2018 remained online.

This correction may look ridiculous, but the Huntley “Nicola” story has been used for the last year to make transgender people feel even more isolated pic.twitter.com/60UcIRaY3l — Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) February 11, 2019

In Sunday’s paper, the clarification stated: “In our article ‘Sick killer Huntley’s wig stunt’, published on 8 April 2018, we reported that prisoner Ian Huntley had been wearing a blonde wig and asking fellow inmates to call him Nicola.

“We also reported that Ian Huntley intended to join the Transgender Pathway in order to become a woman. Ian Huntley would like to make it clear that he does not own a wig, has never asked to be addressed by any name other than his own and that there has never been a plan for him to change his gender identity.”

Widespread reporting

The claims about one of Britain’s most hated criminals, who killed two 10-year-old school girls at his home in 2002, have been regularly repeated in other newspapers since they were first reported in the Daily Star Sunday.

One month after the paper first made the claims, The Sun wrote it was not “Nicola” that Huntley wanted to be called, but “Lian”, citing an anonymous prison source. Its article noted that the prison denied the claims were true.

These claims were subsequently repeated by The Telegraph.

In the last two months the Daily Star’s untrue claims have been repeated online by the Mail Online, The Sun, Mirror, Metro, Grimsby Live and Chronicle Live. All remain online.

Daily Star Sunday removed one article after being contacted by i, but has not responded to a request for comment.