UK — Peterborough, England. In September 2018, it was revealed that Michelle Lewin, a paedophile jailed indefinitely for grooming underage girls, had been moved to a women’s prison. The prison, HMP Peterborough, also includes a 12 place Mother and Baby Unit. Female inmates are said to be terrified that Lewin has been moved to their facility.

In 2007, Lewin, who was then known as Shaun Pudwell and lived in Sheerness, was jailed for grooming young girls he “hunted down in Internet chat rooms”. He had simultaneously targeted girls in multiple locations:

• He sent sexually explicit emails to two 12-year-old girls from Newcastle. Horrified, they contacted the police.
• He sent naked photos of himself to a 13-year-old girl from Leicestershire. This girl also contacted police.
• A victim from Gwent contacted police as well, based on what Pudhell had done.

The three police forces each began investigations and provided information to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.

In April 2006, police officers and CEOP agents arrested Pudwell and seized his computer. They discovered that he had been corresponding to 150 email addresses, which appeared to belong to young girls. Pudwell had collected the addresses from networking websites MySpace and Penpal. Police also found 2,500 indecent images of children.

Pudwell, described by the judge as “a wicked paedophile”, was convicted of causing or inciting child prostitution or pornography, three counts of attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, and three of causing a child to watch a sex act. He was also convicted of five offences of making indecent photos of children by downloading a total of 507 images.

Pudwell is jailed indefinitely, as he can only be released when a parole board is satisfied he no longer poses a serious risk to the public. He is also on a sex offenders’ register indefinitely and is banned from working with children for life.

At some point while in prison, Pudwell began identifying as a woman called Michelle and obtained a gender recognition certificate. In 2014, Pudwell married Mark Lewin, another paedophile, who was jailed in 2015 for having indecent images of children. Lewin has since been released. Mark Lewin told the Sun that Michelle had been moved to a women’s prison “because she is legally female”.

At the time of Lewin’s transfer, 25 transgender inmates were known to be in women’s prisons.

To voice your opinion of male prisoners being placed in women’s prisons, contact:

Dr Jo Farrar, Chief Executive of HM Prison and Probation Service
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @CEOofHMPPS

HM Prison Service (customer service and complaints):
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 0300 047 6325