Rory Stewart, former prisons minister: ‘officers raped by trans prisoners’Last Update: 01:36:52 UTC Monday, May 25, 2020
UK — London, England. Former prisons minister Rory Stewart has said female prison officers were raped by trans-identified male prisoners.
The former Conservative MP, who is standing as an independent candidate in the race for London Mayor, told GQ magazine that while he served in government there were, “situations of male prisoners self-identifying as females then raping staff in prison”.
While the case of Karen White is well known – a trans-identified male, born Stephen Wood, who raped female prisoners after being transferred to a women’s prison – this is the first time the rape of female prison officers has come to light.
Mr Stewart oversaw prisons and the probation service in England and Wales as Minister of State for Prisons between January 2018 and May 2019.
The revelation came when Stewart was asked about policies of self-identification allowing anyone who identifies as a woman to go into female-only spaces, such as changing rooms and toilets.
He replied: “I’m instinctively worried about that, partly because when I was Prisons Minister, we had situations of male prisoners self-identifying as females then raping staff in prison. So I think if someone is biologically male, particularly in an environment like a prison, we shouldn’t allow that to happen.
“We have to be pretty cautious about how we think that happens in other spaces.
“The important thing is: I think the rights of women to feel safe trump the rights of somebody who’s biologically male to enter that space.”
It was reported last year that one in 50 male offenders in prisons are self-identifying as transgender, according to the annual survey of the Chief Inspector of Prisons. The figure suggests there are up to 1,500 transgender inmates among the 90,000 prisoners in England and Wales, more than ten times previous estimates, and at least four times the number in the general population.
Four years ago, female officers in a prison in Scotland refused to carry out strip-searches on a 25-year-old trans-identified male, who had not undergone surgery or hormone treatment, but self-identified as female. Andrew Burns had previously demanded to be called Mighty Almighty, after changing his name.
According to the campaign group Fair Play for Women, in 2018 there were 22 male-born prisoners housed in women’s prisons and self-identifying as women.
A Freedom of Information request by the BBC in 2018 found that of 125 transgender inmates who had had case conferences, 60 were sex offenders, including:
- 27 were convicted of rape (plus a further five of attempted rape)
- 13 were convicted of possessing, distributing or making indecent images of children
- 13 were convicted of sexual assault or attempted sexual assault
- Nine were convicted of causing or inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity
- Seven were convicted of sexual activity with a child
- Seven were convicted of indecent assault or gross indecency
The numbers add up to more than 60 because some prisoners are serving time for more than one offence.
Update
A month later, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) appeared to refute Mr Stewart’s assertion. There have been “no reported incidents of any type of sexual assault against prison officers by trans prisoners,” the MoJ stated. The MoJ additionally revealed that male inmates who identify as transgender are raping female inmates at a disproportionately high rate.
Updated: 01:36:52 UTC Monday, May 25, 2020
Read more on this story
Female prison officers were raped by inmates claiming to be trans
Daily Telegraph
Former justice minister Rory Stewart claims female officers have been raped by transgender inmates
How many transgender inmates are there?
BBC News
Reality Check team looks into the claim that 41% of transgender inmates are sex offenders
One in 50 prisoners identifies as transgender amid fears inmates are attempting to secure prison perks
Daily Telegraph
Annual report by the Chief Inspector of Prisons, 2019
High-risk transgender inmates at female prison mix with women
The Times
Transgender inmates at a new trans unit are mixing with women prisoners, despite promises they would be kept separate
Female prison officers refuse to strip-search trans inmate
The Mirror
Union backs prison officers’ concerns over trans prisoners’ demand for female searches – depite not having transitioned
Women in Prison
Fair Play for Women
Resources and information from campaign group
The Mail reported this. What’s the betting Rory was threatened with the loss of his job and worse if he spoke out while he was still prisons minister? But better late than never, and I hope Lisa Nandy and the rest of the ‘woke’ gang will wake up now. Some MPs don’t care about female prisoners but it now remains to be seen if they care about the staff. Staff must be pretty tough women and trained in self-defence, so if even they can be over-powered, these men are dangerously determined, with a male strength to go with it. These predators probably see the staff as more of a challenge, a greater ‘victory’ for their narcissistic, woman-hating egos. The figures suggest there are 68 times as many of these brutes as 2 years ago – opportunists using ‘trans’ for their own nefarious ends.
Floriana,
no doubt that Rory Stuart was under immense pressure to keep silent about this. I would assume that the need to keep this all quiet is comparable to the pressure to keep quiet about the so-called “grooming gangs”. In both cases political correctness trumps females’ safety. – Rory should be absolutely commended for speaking up about the issue, better late than never.
I don’t think that the staff’s wellbeing ranks above political correctness. The comparison again is the grooming gang scandal. Maggie Oliver, who was a police officer with GMP and who tried to prosecute the grooming gangs and was sabotaged by her colleagues, has left the force in the end. Some accounts say that she resigned, others say that she lost her job. MPs, the government, local politicians, chief constables and other senior police officers should try to keep a dedicated police officer who tried to do her job and do the right thing on the force or maybe offer her to work for a different force, if she wishes. But no one seemingly tried to retain Maggie Oliver as a police officer. As far as I know there was no investigation into GMP as to why Maggie Oliver resigned/lost her job. So if no one cares about a police officer who tried to do the right thing, why should the same people care about prison staff trying to do their job?
Do you know whether prison staff is actually trained in self-defence and properly trained in self-defence? I have met a police recruit (with one of the Scottish regional forces before all Scottish police forces were merged to form Police Scotland) in my martial arts class. This recruit came to the martial arts class because she felt woefully ill prepared for her job by just doing the Officer Safety Training (OST). After she has showed has some techniques of the rather limited syllabus, I can only say that she was absolutely right about her assessment of the quality of the OST. I have seen some glimpses of the OST offered by Surrey Police and while I cannot say for certain that what I have seen is entirely representative of the training offered by Surrey Police, I was not impressed with what I have seen.
So if the self-defence training that prison staff undergo is comparable to that offered by some of the police forces, then unfortunately the prison officers are not well prepared.
Oh for F#$K sake what do they expect when they house male offenders in a female prison. Men prey on women always have done that is why we have segregated women’s spaces. So F#$king ridiculous. When will they wake up and realize that for at least half the population women’s SAFETY is more important than a few mens FEELINGS!!!
Male bodies – men’s prisons.
What’s so difficult to understand about that.
And he’s voicing this to a phallosexist rag, posing as a magazine. How self-revealing.
Pink News, you mean? Oh, right, that is the phallosexist rag transgender activists prefer to use to push their ideologies and policies that erase and/or dehumanize women and girls and strip us of our basic human rights. Talk about throwing stones from glass houses.
I suspect Amanda Rose may have been referring to GQ Magazine, which apparently published an interview with Rory Stewart just before The Daily Mail. No doubt “Pink News” will have their own hot take on the situation too, though.
Fact check:-
Official statement from the Ministry of Justice given to Parliament show that “There have been no reported incidents of any type of sexual assault against prison officers by transgender prisoners.”
NONE. Not one. Ever.
Funny that a right wing politician would choose to lie about something like that.
Funny that the right-wing press would choose to repeat it.
Incidentally, the MoJ also pointed out that in the past ten years, there have been five sexual assaults in prison by trans prisoners. (Roughly one every two years) In the same period, there have been 117 sexual assaults by female prisoners.
Meanwhile 11 trans prisoners (out of 129 held in male prisons) were sexually assaulted in the past year alone. That’s roughly one per month.
Funny that a so-called “feminist” website is pushing far-right transphobic propaganda. You do realise that once the alt right and religious extremists have crushed trans people, they will be working to push women even further back into domestic drudgery don’t you??
But why let facts stand in the way of a bit of transphobic propaganda?
Hello, troll. You have posted lies and anti-women propaganda, but why would a transgender activist let facts stand in the way of your violent hatred of women and girls?
Fact check:
There was NO report by the MOJ stating that 117 sexual assaults were committed by female inmates. The only report given by the MOJ on this issue was that of the 124 sexual assaults committed since 2010, 7 were committed by ‘transgender’ inmates. Two points, troll:
– You don’t know WHO was raping the female inmates. UK research into prison rapes is not nearly as extensive as research into the same in the US, but in the US, research found that the vast majority of rapes of female inmates was by corrections officers. In addition, men in women’s prisons can cause pregnancy, STDs, genital and other physical injury, and a threatening male presence for previously abused women, adding to the trauma of rape.
– 2017 was the year that the MoJ issued a policy allowing inmates to “self-identify” and be treated “according to the gender in which they identify,” if they express “a consistent desire to live permanently in the gender they identify with.” Yet, the MOJ was counting rapes in women’s prisons beginning in 2010, so you can’t really get the full effect of how the rape rate has really shot up since the arrival of these MEN in women’s prisons.
It is NOT the duty of women to act as human shields protecting MEN from other men they feel unsafe with, absorbing rapes and other attacks so that MEN won’t have to. If your concern were actually with the safety of transgender inmates, then you would advocate for these men to be placed in separate prisons or a separate wing of the men’s prisons. I’d support you. However, you are simply anti-women, and using these men against women under the guise of a social justice movement. Therefore, I will fight you.
I am not beholden to anyone’s ideology or partisan politics, and I love it that way. I stand for what I stand for. No one has the control to check me or the website for not living up to any label or ideology neither has claimed. My alliances are temporary, and on a per-issue basis. Your cries of who and what is “left wing” or “right wing” or “feminist” according to yours or someone else’s definition has me unmoved. Now, shoo, back to Pink News, or whomever is sending you, with tale between legs.
In addition, nothing was hidden, as the MoJ’s claim was reported here: https://www.womenarehuman.com/transgender-inmates-are-raping-female-prisons-at-a-shocking-rate-ministry-of-justice-reveals/