‘I should never have been put in women’s jail’: Trans rapist and paedophile, 57, who sexually assaulted female prisoners during a three-month reign of terror urges government to keep transgender women out of female jails
A notorious transgender sex predator who sexually assaulted female prisoners now says she should never have been put in a women’s prison.
Convicted pedophile and rapist Karen White, who was born male, harassed female prisoners during a three-month reign of terror at New Hall women’s prison in West Yorkshire.
White, 57, who still has male genitals, was transferred to a men’s prison and later given a life sentence for a series of sex crimes.
In a four-page letter to a women’s rights activist, sent from her cell at Frankland prison in County Durham, the 6ft tall White urges the government to keep transgender women out of women’s prisons unless they have undergone surgery .
White says “all I could see was fear in the faces” of female prisoners when they arrived at New Hall prison five years ago. “They would have seen me as a man in women’s clothing and a threat to them,” writes White, who is described as a “towering figure in a blonde wig.”
Convicted pedophile and rapist Karen White, who was born male, abused female prisoners during a three-month reign of terror at New Hall women’s prison in West Yorkshire
White, 57, who still has male genitals, was transferred to a men’s prison and later given a life sentence for a series of sex crimes
She says that “transgender women should not be in a women’s prison,” adding, “I mean all transgender women, not on a case-by-case basis, until they have had a full reassignment surgery, because it’s all about the women in the women’s prison and their safety must be guaranteed. decisive.
“Housing transgender women who have not undergone full surgery only puts these vulnerable women at risk on a daily basis and know-one (sic) should feel that way in their safe environment.”
White, born Stephen Wood, is serving a life sentence in Frankland’s category A prison for multiple rapes, sexual assaults and grievous bodily harm.
They saw me as a man – and as a threat to them
The women’s rights activist who received the letter said: ‘It came as a bolt from the blue. Feminists have warned for years that women’s spaces must be protected in the interests of women’s safety, and now this letter shows that even trans women agree.” In the letter, White says that when she was remanded in custody in 2017, she told court officials that she should not be placed in a women’s prison.
She claims a magistrate told her she would be held in a women’s prison because she had already lived as a woman in “the community” for two years.
White, born Stephen Wood, is serving a life sentence in Frankland’s Category A prison for multiple rapes, sexual assaults and grievous bodily harm
White will have to serve a minimum of nine and a half years before he is eligible for parole after admitting sexual assaults on two female inmates and raping two other women.
The judge at Leeds Crown Court described White as ‘predatory and highly manipulative’. She attacked the two female prisoners at New Hall while they were on remand after stabbing her 66-year-old neighbor with a knife.
One of the prisoners who accused White, Cheryle Kempton, later told The Mail on Sunday how White demanded she perform a sex act, grabbed her breasts and pressed himself against her while she was aroused.
White’s letter fuels the debate over whether men who identify as women should have unfettered access to women-only spaces, following a number of sex scandals.
This year, the government introduced regulations banning trans women with male genitals who are violent or sex offenders from serving time in women’s prisons.
Exceptions can only be made in exceptional cases and with the agreement of the ministers.
The directive came into force after this newspaper revealed that a transgender killer with male genitalia had had consensual sex with a female prisoner and allegedly sexually assaulted another at Bronzefield women’s prison in west London.
Last night, Liz Hogarth, a former Justice Department official, said there should be no reversal of policy on trans prisoners. She added: ‘Most women are extremely vulnerable as they have experienced multiple and complex traumas, including male violence. It is never appropriate to prioritize the needs of trans-identifying men over the needs of these women.”
In Scotland, prison chiefs this year halted the transgender sex offender movement after a furious backlash against double rapist Isla Bryson being sent to a women’s prison. She was later transferred to the men’s prison.