Rapist and triple-murderer Steven Hayes (in undated photo of his early years in prison, left, and a more modern photo, right) converted to Orthodox Judaism while in prison, and sued the state for providing food that was not sufficiently kosher. He has more recently found a second faith, gender identity, and demands hormones to look more like the woman he believes he is. (Credit: Connecticut State Police, via Associated Press)

US — Greene County, Pennsylvania. A notorious rapist and triple murderer, serving six consecutive life sentences for participating in a deadly home invasion in which a woman and her daughters were raped and tortured, has now revealed that he identifies as a woman and plans to transition. The violent convict is complaining about his treatment in men’s prison while presenting “as female,” thereby paving the way for a possible transfer to women’s prison.

In July 2007, Steven Hayes, aged 56, and accomplice Joshua Komisarjevsky, broke into the upscale home of the Petit family in Cheshire, Connecticut.

Dr William Petit was the sole survivor of the massacre that claimed the lives of his wife Jennifer, a nurse, and the couple’s two daughters, Hayley and Michaela.

The pair beat Dr William Petit in the head with a baseball bat, and left the severely injured man bound in the basement.

The men stole $103 from the wallet of 17-year-old Hayley, and held the family captive until morning when the bank opened.

One of the men then drove Jennifer Hawke-Petit to the bank to withdraw cash. Ms Hawke-Petit calmly informed the bank teller that her family was being held hostage and would be murdered if the kidnappers didn’t receive $15,000. The teller gave Ms Hawke-Petit that sum, which was more than she had in her bank account, and called the police once she left.

Back at the home, the men raped Ms Hawke-Petit, and sodomized her 11-year-old daughter, Michaela. A naked Mr Komisarjevsky posed suggestively with the bound girl in seven photos taken on his cell phone. An eighth photo depicted Ms Hawke-Petit with her legs spread.

When Mr Hayes saw police cruisers pull up outside the home, he panicked and strangled Ms Hawke-Petit to death. He doused the girls with gasoline, and the men set the house on fire. Left bound to their beds, the girls succumbed to smoke inhalation.

The suspects were apprehended when they crashed their car into a police barricade while attempting to flee.

Dr Petit managed to escape the massacre, rolling onto the neighbor’s property to seek help just as his house burst into flames behind him. The fire was too ferocious to allow rescue of the remaining inhabitants, Paul Makuc of the state fire marshal’s office would later say.

The Petit family home was destroyed by the killers.

“What was a vibrant house of people at 9 o’clock became a house of terror and horror,” State’s Attorney Michael Dearington told jurors during the trial. “There’s no way to recreate the fear, the terror, the horror that those girls experienced in their last few minutes.”

Mr Hayes and Mr Komisarjevsky were sentenced to death. In 2016, their sentences were commuted to life with no chance of parole after the Supreme Court of Connecticut ruled the death penalty unconstitutional.

Joshua Komisarjevsky, former accomplice of Steven Hayes, attempted suicide in August 2016, shortly after his death sentence was commuted to life. (Credit: Connecticut Department of Corrections)

During the time he spent on death row, Mr Hayes found religion and became an Orthodox Jew. He began wearing a yarmulke, and in 2014, sued the state for violating his First Amendment right to free exercise of religion and Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment by denying him kosher food.

He sought an injunction ordering the Department of Corrections to provide pre-packaged kosher meals to all Jewish inmates in Connecticut prisons, and demanded $15,000 in punitive and compensatory damages for “intentional infliction of pain, suffering and resulting weight loss from the deliberate denial of a kosher diet.”

US District Court Judge Alvin Thompson ruled against the inmate, finding that Mr Hayes’s meals, which are certified by two rabbis who monitor the preparation of kosher food in the state’s prison system, was sufficient to meet kosher standards.

On October 12, 2019, Mr Hayes told Joe Tomaso, host of the podcast “15 Minutes With…,” that he is transgender and currently receiving hormones. He has altered his prison gear to look feminine, he said.

“I am a transgender. I was diagnosed at 16 with sexual identity disorder and my family never acknowledged it and it was never treated,” Mr Hayes said. “There’s a lot of problems with the presentation as a female. I mean a lot people accept it, but this facility here, you have a lot of racist and bigot staff and they’re not happy.”

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections spokeswoman Maria Finn revealed that Connecticut pays $60,600 a year total for gender-affirming surgeries and hormones for the 222 state prisoners who identify as transgender.