Trans rapist in female prison proves legal system has sacrificed vulnerable women, JULIE BINDEL says

Between 2016 and 2019, a skinhead thug named Adam Graham carried out two violent rapes.

Graham, with facial tattoos similar to those sported by boxer Mike Tyson, another convicted rapist, first appeared in the dock for these crimes in July 2019. But when this individual went on trial last week, he was had produced a dramatic transformation.

The Glasgow High Court jury was told that Adam Graham was a ‘dead name’ (meaning one that a transgender person is given at birth and no longer uses) and that the defendant was now a ‘woman’ who became call Bryson Island. . This led to the previously unthinkable spectacle of a prosecutor alleging that ‘Isla’ had used ‘his’ penis to commit a heinous rape.

This alone should be enough to demonstrate the extent to which the legal profession has fallen victim to the outcry of trans activists. But what happened next was even more horrible.

Cynical

Graham, the name I will use throughout this article to describe a biological male regardless of his recent claims, has now been sent to a women-only prison, pending further evaluation.

Graham is not the first ‘trans woman’ to be housed in a women-only prison. But this is surely the most horrible case of that kind. Graham not only has two rape convictions, but she began the gender transition process only after being charged.

This deeply suspicious moment has led SNP MP and lawyer Joanna Cherry to suggest, quite reasonably, that Graham had “cheated the system”, while Graham’s estranged wife has said she thinks he is “just lying.” to the authorities”.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s nothing short of the cynical exploitation of a legal system that takes pleasure in sacrificing the welfare and safety of vulnerable female prisoners on the altar of trans ‘rights’.

How else to see it when a grinning Graham, now sporting a blonde wig and false nails, chose to arrive at court on at least one occasion clad in tight leggings, through which his male genitalia were clearly visible?

One can only imagine how devastating this must have been for the two victims, who were already having to cope with the ignominy of having their male-bodied rapist referred to as ‘she’.

‘Self ID’ is not yet the law anywhere in the UK. Even north of the border, Nicola Sturgeon’s controversial Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, which would allow anyone over the age of 16 to ‘self-identify’ as the opposite sex without the need for a medical diagnosis of dysphoria gender, has not yet been legally ratified.

However, those in the UK justice system are doing everything they can to meet the needs of ‘trans-identified’ prisoners, despite stunning evidence from the Ministry of Justice showing that a disproportionate number of these individuals are convicted sex offenders.

Of the 230 UK inmates currently living with a different gender identity, 97, around 42 per cent, are in jail for sex offences. This compares to 20 percent of male prisoners who are sex offenders.

(The statistics don’t show whether the inmates are biological males living as a different gender from women or vice versa, though I’d hazard a guess at the former, given that the overwhelming number of sex crimes are committed by men.)

Among these incarcerated inmates living with a different gender identity are 44 who have been convicted of rape and 14 who have forced sexual activity on underage children. Eleven were convicted of sexual assault and seven for possessing or making child abuse images.

These numbers are likely to rise, given that the Ministry of Justice also revealed a 17 per cent increase in trans prisoners in England and Wales over the last year alone.

Of course, this does not mean that trans people or those with gender dysphoria are more likely to commit sexual crimes. No: One doesn’t have to be a world-weary cynic to suspect that many of these male-bodied inmates, like Graham, who testified in court that he experienced “gender issues” since he was four, have adopted a new female identity to to be housed in the less feverish atmosphere of a women’s prison.

Men’s prisons are tough. But the argument that trans women would be more vulnerable in them than many other groups is shortsighted. What about men who are very young or weak, or with serious physical and mental health problems? Should we put them all in women’s prisons too?

Beyond the dry statistics, of course, lies a litany of abuse of vulnerable women dating back to 2017, a year after transgender prisoners were first allowed to apply for transfer to women’s prisons in England and Welsh.

The risks of this bold new policy were immediately clear when convicted rapist ‘Karen White’, labeled a ‘highly manipulative’ predator by a judge, was transferred to HMP New Hall in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and sexually assaulted two female inmates. .

There have been several more crimes since then. Eighteen months ago, I wrote in this newspaper about Amy Jones (not her real name), a vulnerable survivor of sexual abuse who had been brutally assaulted at HMP Bronzefield prison for women in Surrey by a transgender woman named ‘J’.

Dangerous

‘J’ also enjoyed intimidating female prisoners by showing his male genitalia.

Less than a year later, another male-bodied inmate at Bronzefield was caught having sex with a vulnerable young female prisoner, getting her drunk on prison liquor.

The same inmate also sexually assaulted a second female inmate at Bronzefield and was reportedly heard saying, “I love pussy, why would I want to be in a men’s prison?”

Furthermore, you only need to look across the pond to understand just how dangerous this growing trend could become.

The data suggests that there were about 5,000 transgender people apprehended in the US in 2020, mostly men who identified as women.

Back then, only about 15 of them were granted requests to serve their time in women’s prisons.

However, in October of last year it emerged that in California alone, 334 male-to-female transitioners had applied to transfer to women’s prisons, with 43 of those applications approved and others under review.

This trajectory is deeply troubling. Most women prisoners, regardless of their crimes, remain highly vulnerable.

Many are no strangers to sexual and domestic violence and coercive control.

Now, they are effectively being told that they must accept offenders with male bodies, often convicted sex offenders, among themselves.

And the one thing that unites women around the world is the fear of male violence, particularly sexual violence.

Predator

Of course, most men are not, and never will be, sex offenders. And most trans people live their lives without guilt. But the risks are enough so that, until now, the legal system has been considered so that women can guarantee access to differentiated facilities in changing rooms, hospitals, shelters and prisons.

Yet the fanatical pro-trans lobby continues to exert its dangerous hold on lawmakers. This has never been more apparent than last month, when members of the Scottish Parliament chose to reject an amendment to the Gender Recognition Bill that would have ensured rape defendants could not obtain a gender recognition certificate for ‘change sex’

Questioned on the issue, Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted that her reforms would not give predatory men more access to women.

How hollow those words ring now, as twice convicted rapist Adam Graham is being held at Cornton Vale Women’s Prison.

For Graham to be sitting there today is an insult to what, I insist, are his victims, and a blight on our justice system.

• Julie Bindel is the author of Feminism for Women: The Royal Road to Liberation (Constable).