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Karen White, originally from the Manchester area in England, is a rapist who later identified as a woman and was remanded at HMP New Hall for a knife attack on a neighbour on the basis of self-identification as a woman, despite having had neither surgery nor hormone treatment. While at New Hall, White was accused of four sexual assaults against female prisoners within a 3 month period. White was then moved to HM Armley, an all-male prison in Leeds, while police investigated.[1]
White appeared at Leeds Crown Court and pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual touching within New Hall prison, as well as to two rapes committed prior to being sent to the prison, and was moved to a male prison after sentencing.[2][3]
Background
White was assigned male at birth and committed a number of offences under the birth name Stephen Terence Wood: indecent assault, indecent exposure and gross indecency involving children, violence and dishonesty.[4] Then, in August 2017, after being arrested for a knife attack on a 66-year-old neighbour in Mytholmroyd, was remanded to HM Prison New Hall. White began transitioning while at New Hall, wearing a wig, make-up and fake breasts.[5]
Two rape charges surfaced after White wrote to one of the victims from prison. The first charge was from a woman who said she had been violently raped multiple times in 2016, after they met at a psychiatric unit in West Yorkshire. The second was from 2003, where White was accused of spiking a woman's drink and raping her. Though arrested at the time, White was ultimately not prosecuted.[6]
Sexual assaults while on remand
White began gender re-allignment - wearing a wig, make-up and false breasts - while at New Hall and became friendly with a female inmate until an incident in a queue during which the complainant felt something hard press against the small of her back. When she turned around, she saw White's erect penis.[7]
Trial
In October 2018, White pleaded guilty at Leeds Crown Court via video link from HMP Leeds, to two counts of rape, one offence of wounding and two sexual assaults while on remand for previous offences. In passing a sentence of life with a minimum term of 9 and a half years before parole could be considered, Judge Christopher Batty told the defendant: “You are a predator and highly manipulative and in my view you are a danger. You represent a significant risk of serious harm to children, to women and to the general public.”[8]
Aftermath and impact
The Karen White case was raised in Parliament in February 2019 in an oral question and Edward Argar, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, answered to explain that as a result of the case, the Government was reviewing policy and its application.[9] Thereafter, the Ministry of Justice created a special unit for transgender inmates. A spokesperson said, "Prisoner safety is our biggest concern and any decisions we take will seek to best manage the risks posed by each offender. The wider management of transgender offenders is a highly sensitive issue which poses unique and complex challenges... That's why we are reviewing the way we manage all transgender offenders."[10]
Dr Sarah Lamble, Reader in Criminology and Queer Theory at Birkbeck, University of London, has argued that, from a queer feminist transformative justice perspective, the White case was successfully deployed by anti-trans forces.[11]
In 2023, White wrote a letter to a women's rights activist where she stated trans women should be kept out of female prisons.[12]
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