Scottish convicts can hide their criminal records by declaring themselves transgender
Convicts in Scotland can wipe their criminal records clean by declaring themselves the opposite sex, according to a Daily Mail report on Monday.
Alan Baker, who is serving a life sentence for murder, began claiming to be transgender while behind bars and changed his name to Alexandria Stewart. Recent background checks under Alexandria Stewart did not reveal his conviction.
“This was only picked up because of the obvious absurdity that an incarnated murderer had a clean rap sheet. But how many other former prisoners have been able to hide their criminal past in this way?” said Susan Smith from the group For Women Scotland. “We know that rapists and child sex offenders, who may have been released, have taken advantage of self-identification policies in prison. Women and parents will be horrified to learn that these men may, even now, be out in the community and taking advantage of their whitewashed record…”
Sharon Dowey, a Member of Scottish Parliament, expressed concern that this will increase the rate of male convicts who exploit the Scottish government’s radical gender policies. Some male inmates, for example, have declared themselves women so they can be transferred to women’s prisons.
Men in women’s prisons
In 2023, the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) created a policy allowing violent male felons who claim to be women to be incarcerated in women’s prisons so they can acclimate to living with other women.
"Transgender people in custody should be provided the opportunity and supported to work towards being accommodated in an estate that aligns with their affirmed gender so that, on release to the community, they have had the opportunity to live with those who share their affirmed gender,” said the SPS.
While outrage against these policies is often aimed at the male predators who exploit them, the SPS is led by women. SPS Chief Executive Teresa Medhurst is supported by Deputy Chief Executive Linda Pollock and Director of Policy Sarah Angus. In early 2023, Medhurst placed a serial rapist named Adam Graham, who later declared himself a woman and changed his name to Isla Bryson, in the women’s penitentiary. He was only moved to the men’s prison after widespread backlash. The case is said to have caused the resignation of then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who was unable to decide if Graham was a man or a woman.
After the scandal, the SPS decided that violent male felons — even those who committed violence against women — could be housed with female inmates if there is "compelling evidence that they do not present an unacceptable risk of harm to those in the women's prison.”
SPS Chief Executive Medhurst later confirmed that a history of violence against women is not necessarily enough to bar a man from women’s prisons if he claims to be female. He must also be proven to be a current risk to women.
But even those who are considered so dangerous to women that they cannot be housed with females are permitted to visit women’s prisons and interact with the inmates.
