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Sorry Sussex Police, but sex is relevant to sex crimes

Credit: Getty

September 27, 2022 - 5:34pm

‘Woman convicted of historic offences against children in Sussex,’ reads the headline on Sussex Police’s website. But it was clear that the perpetrator was male, and not just because female child sex offenders are a relative rarity. 

In fact, the press release itself stated that Sally Ann Dixon was known as John Stephen Dixon up until 2004. The children, seven in total aged from six to 15, were abused by Dixon between 1989 and 1996 in 30 separate assaults. When one of the victims, now an adult, came forward in 2019 and reported Dixon, several others followed suit.

After Sussex Police were admonished for referring to Dixon as a woman in their statement, they responded on 27 September by tweeting: “Hi, Sussex Police do not tolerate any hateful comments towards their gender identity regardless of crimes committed. This is irrelevant to the crime that has been committed and investigated.”

So, is sex now irrelevant to sex crime?

It must be deeply upsetting for Dixon’s victims to have the truth about their perpetrator obscured. It is bad enough recounting distressing details of sexual assault without being told their abuser is now ‘a woman’. But, to make matters much worse, Dixon has been sent to Bronzefield — a women’s prison. 

Last year I interviewed Amy, a former prisoner from Bronzefield who had been sexually assaulted by a trans-identified male whilst in custody. She told me that the prison officers were terrified to deal with transgender sex offenders on the wing, even when women reported them for inappropriate behaviour. 

Amy, with the help of feminist lawyers, took a judicial review against the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to overturn its policy to allocate high risk trans-identified prisoners, including sex offenders, to female prisons.

Her lawyers argued that the policy discriminates against female prisoners, and that the government had failed to take into account the provisions of the Equality Act which allows for certain institutions and services to be female-only. If a prison wing, in which some of the most vulnerable women in society are confined, does not qualify as a suitable location for such an exemption, I struggle to think of what does. 

Why put Dixon, who does not even have a Gender Recognition Certificate and is therefore male in law as well as body, in a women’s prison? If trans-identified males are worried about being bullied or attacked by other prisoners in the male estate, then sort that out. No prisoner should be subject to fear or attack. And as for using female pronouns for males who have carried out sexual assaults? We need to challenge it at every stage — from arrest, to court, and through to conviction. It is inexcusable to claim that a ‘woman’ carried out crimes committed by men when it is women who are disproportionately the victims of sex crimes. 

In its response to complaints about its description of Dixon, Sussex Police has been exposed as yet another institution that has been captured by the madness of transgender ideology. To dismiss legitimate concern as ‘hate’ is to paint a substantial portion of women as bigots. This attitude is not just a source of disgrace for the police force, but may well discourage future victims from coming forward.


Julie Bindel is an investigative journalist, author, and feminist campaigner. Her latest book is Feminism for Women: The Real Route to Liberation. She also writes on Substack.

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John Dellingby
John Dellingby
1 year ago

This is another classic decision by the authorities that defies logic and sanity to anyone possessing an ounce of common sense. If the perpetrator is essentially a biological male possessing all the functions that come with such a thing, and a sex offender at that, why has he been allowed to be accommodated alongside the most vulnerable women in the country?

How have the great and the good and the institutions they serve allowed these travesties to happen?

Aaron James
Aaron James
1 year ago
Reply to  John Dellingby

”why has he been allowed to be accommodated alongside the most vulnerable women in the country?”

You are as woke as the Police doing this insanity.

It takes a lot to get real time in HM Prison System – they do not yet lock you up for being a scared, frail, helpless, victim. ‘Most Vulnerable women in the country’ OMG!!!

I guess you have bought into the current agenda than when a crime has been committed the true victim was the one who did it – because society must have really harmed them that they turned to crime…. haha – woke sheep…

Chrispin Sinclair
Chrispin Sinclair
1 year ago
Reply to  Aaron James

Most of these women have had hard, poor starts in life. Many are victims of domestic violence and abuse. Most of these women are in for petty crimes like shoplifting or TV licence evasion. Men are more likely to be in for sex crimes or violence.

Brett H
Brett H
1 year ago

Most of these women … Many … Most of these women.. are in for petty crimes like shoplifting or TV licence evasion. And other crimes, right?

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
1 year ago
Reply to  Aaron James

Come off it mate. Major category error in your thinking there. Prisoners can simultaneously be aggressive and vulnerable, with chronic low self-esteem and substance-abuse issues. Don’t confuse civility with vulnerability.  

Brett H
Brett H
1 year ago
Reply to  Frank McCusker

The issue is not that the women in prison aren’t vulnerable people, it’s the assertion that they’re the most vulnerable women in the country.

michael stanwick
michael stanwick
1 year ago
Reply to  Aaron James

Perhaps he means “physically vulnerable” on average compared to men and also in a confined space?

Brett H
Brett H
1 year ago
Reply to  John Dellingby

“the most vulnerable women in the country?”
Are you here talking about the women in prison, who might possibly be victims of injustice, but surely not the majority of inmates, who have committed crimes. You really cannot think of any women who might be more vulnerable?

Hugh Marcus
Hugh Marcus
1 year ago
Reply to  Brett H

Prisons are full of people who are vulnerable. An awful lot of them have experienced trauma & abuse in their early childhood. This can often lead them towards addictions & ultimately breaking the law. Whilst not excusing the crimes they may have committed, it goes a long way towards explaining it.
So yes, there would have been vulnerable women in prison.

Brett H
Brett H
1 year ago
Reply to  Hugh Marcus

“the most vulnerable women in the country?”
The most vulnerable women in prison is the issue, not some. Of course there would be vulnerable women in prison, but not the most vulnerable in the country.

Jeremy Bray
Jeremy Bray
1 year ago

While I certainly don’t hate men wishing to pass as women and even wanting to be referred to as women, I certainly find the attitude of Sussex police to be stupid, dishonest and even hateful in this instance. Whatever the desire of the perpetrator in this case they should certainly not attempt to pass off a crime committed by a man as one committed by a woman. How can we trust anything emanating from Sussex police while they persist in this charade?

Aaron James
Aaron James
1 year ago
Reply to  Jeremy Bray

Next – a pedophile identifying as a child so being sent to Juvenile Prison?

How about one of the Prison guards showing up to work in those massive prosthetic Breasts the Canadian shop teacher was wearing? How about the prisoner in this story demands a pair of them as that is how he identifies….

Let us pray a hard Right wave is building and will wash out all the insane idiots like these, who are out to destroy society. The new Italian PM gave a speech on family and men and women which has totally swept the internet. Here on Unherd she was sneered at a bit – but she is the coming wave, it is just building. Next it is time for parents to re-take the schools and get the destructive woke out of them – as is sweeping USA Now. Mothers are politically mobilized in mass, and taking back the schools across USA. here is an old one, on Rumble, and ‘Bannon’s War Room’ this is always an ongoing story on this phenomenon.

The Revolt Of America’s Moms: A Mother’s Day Special Cont.
https://rumble.com/v13vqyn-episode-1840-the-revolt-of-americas-moms-a-mothers-day-special-cont..html

SC Fung
SC Fung
1 year ago
Reply to  Aaron James

Just to add that some gender ‘experts’ state that a paedophile is a minor attracted person!!! Mind boggling.

Joan Pearson
Joan Pearson
1 year ago
Reply to  SC Fung

Yes, this is now well known, along with campaigns in some quarters to get the age for gender self id reduced. Frightening

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Aaron James

I apologise for calling you woke in a comment on another article a few days ago.

R MS
R MS
1 year ago

I see after Braverman criticised the Sussex tweet it has been deleted.
Quite right too. But not enough.
Braverman and the Justice Secretary need to ensure men like this go to men’s prisons. If they need a special wing to protect them from the general run of male inmates, so be it. But they have no business being with vulnerable women. That they are placed in women’s prisons is, frankly, obscene.

Roddy Campbell
Roddy Campbell
1 year ago
Reply to  R MS

…and maybe sack the senior police officer for a clear lack of judgment.

Pour encourager les autres!

Simon Diggins
Simon Diggins
1 year ago

Sussex Police are just wrong on every level but so is the MoJ for pandering to the Stonewall ideology.

As for Dixon, the simplest way to deal with descriptions is to describe Dixon in his male identity for his crimes, as he committed them, as a male-identifying, male. If we want to acknowledge that Dixon now wishes to identify as a female, that is fine also.

Doesn’t get Dixon into a female prison though.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Simon Diggins

Exactly right.

Roddy Campbell
Roddy Campbell
1 year ago

These are the fruits of the Progressive Left’s Long March through the Institutions. While we slept, they have been quietly infiltrating their placemen into senior roles in the police, the civil service, the NHS, and a thousand quangos, public bodies and institutions.

It’s straight from the Frankfurt School’s 1930s playbook. So effective has it been that many of these people don’t even realize where they acquired their opinions and progressive outlook.

Think I’m paranoid? Then please explain the behaviour of Sussex Police in a more plausible way.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Roddy Campbell

“Think I’m paranoid? Then please explain the behaviour of Sussex Police in a more plausible way.”
Hanlon’s Razor.

michael stanwick
michael stanwick
1 year ago
Reply to  Roddy Campbell

That is a hypothesis of course. My one question; is the ‘long march’ is from deliberate intent or from what I call ‘ideology drift’ (as in genetic drift in a population) on the part of the “progressive Left”?

Michael F
Michael F
1 year ago

A person with a p***s, convicted of sex crimes committed with that p***s, has been locked up with people with vaginas. Even when you cloak it in trans-friendly terminology, it’s deeply shocking.

Steve Elliott
Steve Elliott
1 year ago
Reply to  Michael F

Not so long ago it was reported that Scottish Police would log a rape carried by someone who self identified as a woman as a crime carried out by a woman even if the rape was penetrative by a p***s. If convicted that person would go to a woman’s prison. It is a rapist’s charter.
I don’t know how often that happens or if it is still the case.

Steve Elliott
Steve Elliott
1 year ago

It’s looking like gender self-identity is already here despite the law. In this case the police are accepting it and from other reports it seems that companies and other organisations are accepting it too.

Mo Brown
Mo Brown
1 year ago

Thank you for your service to Clown World, Essex Police!! It’s great to know that whether the offender has a d*ck is not relevant in rape cases. We can probably also safely assume that having a weapon is not a relevant factor in weapons related crimes.

Ian L
Ian L
1 year ago

I identify as unarmed therefore I could not have shot anyone.
I identify as rich so had no need to rob the corner shop.
I identify as innocent, you can’t send me down

Last edited 1 year ago by Ian L
Anne McKee
Anne McKee
1 year ago

The Police College interpretation seems to be at odds with the law, removing those in charge and replacing them with
un indoctrinated adults would be a great start to combating this madness.

William Cameron
William Cameron
1 year ago

The Crimes were committed by a man . He was a man when he committed the crimes.
So for the police to claim the crimes were committed by a woman is wrong-and silly.

Helen E
Helen E
1 year ago

PS: He’s still a man. And he will die as one.

Frank McCusker
Frank McCusker
1 year ago

It’s like waking up into a world where everyone else has gone crackers.

polidori redux
polidori redux
1 year ago

Time for extreme measures. The UK police force should be disbanded. We can use the money saved to start again.

CHARLES STANHOPE
CHARLES STANHOPE
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

Begin a new force with veterans from the Household Division and the Parachute Regiment for starters.

They and they alone, have the courage,, discipline and esprit de corps to produce a really first class Police Force, in total contrast to the existing rabble.

Last edited 1 year ago by CHARLES STANHOPE
Hugh Marcus
Hugh Marcus
1 year ago
Reply to  polidori redux

Not that your ridiculous suggestion has any merit, but if you’re starting again then you need to disband 52 police forces. That’s just England.

polidori redux
polidori redux
1 year ago
Reply to  Hugh Marcus

Am I being ridiclous? The modern police force do not perform the function for wich they were created, which, in case we have forgotten, is the prevention of crime..

Charles Lewis
Charles Lewis
1 year ago

Why the devil does my newspaper, the Telegraph, refer, when giving a full account of this matter, refer to the male perp as ‘she’?

N Forster
N Forster
1 year ago

What laws need to be repealed to stop this?

Roddy Campbell
Roddy Campbell
1 year ago
Reply to  N Forster

None. The College of Policing needs its wings clipped. It’s gone off-piste with its policies.

Thank goodness we’ve got a Home Secretary who isn’t afraid of the Blob.

Richard Craven
Richard Craven
1 year ago
Reply to  Roddy Campbell

*Cottage of Policing.

Hugh Bryant
Hugh Bryant
1 year ago

The illiterate tweet quoted in the third paragraph tells you everything, doesn’t it?

SC Fung
SC Fung
1 year ago

Kemi B please come forward and sort this mess out!!!

Vijay Kant
Vijay Kant
1 year ago

The only cure for insanity is more insanity. We need more insane cases like this to unwoke the gender wokes. Until they directly suffer the consequence of their own insanity nothing will change.

Last edited 1 year ago by Vijay Kant
Hugh Marcus
Hugh Marcus
1 year ago

The rot set in when they legalised a lie. Viz you can change gender & get a new birth certificate in your new gender. Factually this isn’t true. If you were born in one gender & wish to transition to another one, by all means you should be free to do so.
But somewhere confidential there should be a record of your previous life, particularly if you committed serious crimes in the previous gender.
It’s known that some sex offenders have tried this to find a way round the fact that they are in the register for life.
All in all, it’s madness.

Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart
1 year ago

Well there is one way women prisoners can get rid of the males in their prisons – I predict a riot?

michael stanwick
michael stanwick
1 year ago

Why put Dixon, who does not even have a Gender Recognition Certificate and is therefore male *in law* as well as body, in a women’s prison?(my asterisks)
Well, yes. In law sex is biology. Hence to access certain features of society that are gated by the law, an individual has to be regarded by the law as having a ‘passport’ to access those features. Hence a GRC legal fiction, so that the individual is regarded only in law as belonging to a sex category to which they do not belong in reality.
EHRC guidance does allow for certain individuals to be denied access to a particular prison estate when it is proportionate and legitimate to do so. So I am unsure what the policy is here; … Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to overturn its policy to allocate high risk trans-identified prisoners, including sex offenders, to female prisons.

Last edited 1 year ago by michael stanwick
William Shaw
William Shaw
1 year ago

Women hoisted on their own petard.  
The law of unintended consequences.