Transsexual prisoner wins move to women's jail

A transsexual prisoner serving life for manslaughter and attempted rape committed while she was a man has won a high court battle to be transferred to a women's jail. Deputy judge David Elvin QC quashed a decision by the justice secretary, Jack Straw, to continue detaining the 27-year-old, referred to only as A, in a male prison.

The judge said the refusal was a violation of her human rights. He said: "I declare her continued detention in a male prison is in breach of her rights under Article 8 [right to private and family life] under the European Convention on Human Rights." The judge was told that steps had been taken to transfer A, described by her lawyer as "a woman trapped inside a man's body", to a female prison "as soon as possible".

Hair on A's face and legs had been permanently removed by laser and she had developed breasts after hormone treatment. But she was forbidden from wearing skirts or blouses, or more than "subtle" make-up, at the men's prison where she was being held on a "vulnerable prisoners" wing.



To complete her change to full womanhood, she required gender reassignment surgery, but had been told she could not have it while she remained in a men's prison.

The Department of Justice and the prison authorities argued that she would be no more likely to be accepted by inmates at a female prison and would have to spend long periods in segregation at an extra cost of £80,000 a year.

They contended that a move to a female jail might have a serious impact on her mental health and make it more difficult for her to reduce her level of risk to society and win early release from her sentence.