UK — Edinburgh, Scotland. Gordon Pike, a senior official of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) who was caught with “indecent pictures of children”, was one of seven prison service officials who had approved the SPS’s “gender identity and gender reassignment policy”, the The Sunday Times reported. This policy stipulates that transgender prisoners should be housed based on their self-identified “social gender”; no legal documentation is required.

In 2016, the disgraced former Trade Union Side Secretary of the SPS pleaded guilty to possessing over 22,000 indecent images of children. Officers uncovered these images in a search of Pike’s home, after he was arrested at the Edinburgh headquarters of the SPS.

Pike’s lawyer stated that Pike had been the co-chair of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) centre in Glasgow. The lawyer said that “an unidentified man arrived in August 2006, carrying a holdall, and said it was from a recently-deceased relative.” A staff member discovered that the holdall “contained a large amount of pornography – both VHS videos and discs”. Pike took the holdall home, and stashed the discs in his loft. He kept this illegal material at his home for 10 years, until it was uncovered by officers during their search.

Sheriff Susan Sinclair said the fact that Pike had not downloaded the images himself constituted “mitigating circumstances”, and sentenced Pike to 240 hours of unpaid work in lieu of prison.

Of the 18 transgender prisoners in Scottish prisons when The Times article went to press, all but six were either housed in, or seeking transfers to, women’s prisons. According to the Ministry of Justice, 48% of transgender prisoners in the UK are sex offenders.

On June 20, 2019, Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People to the Scottish Parliament, issued a statement indicating that the government would be postponing reforms to the 2004 Gender Recognition Act (GRA) to remove the need for trans people to provide evidence that they have lived in their acquired gender for at least two years. Somerville stated that the government had a duty to address concerns that changes to gender identification will endanger women-only spaces. She also stipulated that a bill would not be fully introduced to Parliament until there’s been a “full consultation on the precise details”.

Those wishing to express their views on gender identification should contact the Cabinet Secretary at:

Shirley-Anne Somerville

T4.05

The Scottish Parliament

Edinburgh

EH99 1SP

Telephone: 0131 348 5778

Email:[email protected] and / or

Email:[email protected]

Read more on this story Sex offender Gordon Pike helped set prison trans rules

The Times

An official who agreed a policy allowing male-bodied sex offenders into women’s prisons was a sex offender who hoarded 22,000 indecent pictures of children. CHILD PORN SCREW Former Barlinnie prison guard caught with over 22,000 images of children being abused

The Scottish Sun

Gordon Pike, who was the organisation’s Trade Union Side Secretary, was caught with more than 22,000 images of children being abused. Statement on gender recognition

The Scottish Government

Presiding Officer, In my statement today, I want to set out the background to the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the case for its reform.