Scottish prison authorities have come under fire for putting vulnerable women at risk after it emerged that four of the five transgender inmates held at the women’s prison are murderers.
The revelation is the latest twist in the controversy surrounding Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which allows people aged 16 and over to “self-identify” without medical supervision, and the subsequent outcry over the proposed admission. from Isla Bryson, 31, a rapist formerly known as Adam Graham, to Cornton Vale Women’s Prison.
Public outrage over Bryson’s treatment led Nicola Sturgeon’s administration to order an urgent “lessons learned” review of the case. It has also sparked criticism of the prime minister, with her former mentor, Alex Salmond, now leader of Alba, accusing Sturgeon of undermining the cause of Scottish independence for “losing the trust” of many women’s rights activists
The presence of male-born killers in women’s prisons, including Cornton Vale, contradicts the Scottish Prison Service’s “trauma-informed” strategy, which is designed to “ensure that women’s living conditions help to reduce fear and anxiety”. ”. For Women Scotland, a campaign group opposing reforms that allow individuals to change their registered sex by self-declaration, said the policy causes “trauma for some of the most vulnerable women, trapping them with incredibly dangerous and unpredictable men”. .
He added: “Prison should be about rehabilitation, not mental torture, but as witnesses attest, that is what this shockingly cruel policy means. All those responsible should be ashamed and many should be investigated.”
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The presence of four assassins on the women’s property drew further criticism from Sturgeon’s own party.
Michelle Thomson, SNP MSP, Falkirk East, said the decision to house the violent inmates in a women’s prison was “unbelievable”. She said prison authorities failed to give “any consideration to women with trauma” and added: “If they had, they simply would not have considered placing murderous trans women and rapists who identify as trans women within the female patrimony.”
The four convicted murderers are:
• Alex Stewart, formerly Alan Baker, was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 2013 after stabbing his victim, John Weir, 16 times in Bonhill, Dunbartonshire.
• Sophie Eastwood, formerly Daniel Eastwood, then 19, was convicted of murder after strangling Paul Algie at a young offenders institution in Dumfries in 2004. That sentence was increased for an attack on a prison guard, before Eastwood identified himself as a woman in 2018. Eastwood is now said to identify as a baby and wants all meals “mixed together like baby food.”
• Paris Green, formerly Peter Laing, was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years in prison in 2013 for the murder of Robert Shankland, 45, in Glenrothes, Fife.
• Melissa Young, formerly Richard McCabe, was convicted of the murder of Edinburgh neighbour, Alan Williamson, on Christmas Day 2013. The victim suffered 29 stab wounds.
Kate Coleman of Keep Prisons Single Sex said: “These are violent men, all four of whom have caused significant problems in women’s equity. . . including sexual exhibitionism (Stewart and Eastwood), harassment and stalking (Eastwood), sexual threats and inappropriate sexual intercourse (Green), and violent assault (Young).
A Scottish government spokesman said: “As the Justice Secretary has made clear to parliament, the management and accommodation of prisoners within the prison has been and will remain an operational matter for the Scottish Prison Service.”
A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: “All trans men and trans women in our care are assessed for risk.”