Assistant professor Maureen O’Hara has authored a study into the criminal justice system in the UK that reveals the system is failing women. Transgender rights are being preferred over reality as male rapists who imitate being women are being referred to as ‘she’ by both the police and courts, despite this not aligning with the law.

Males are also being housed in female prisons because they say they are women.

“The introduction of self-declaration of ‘gender identity’ has taken place without foundation in law, and in the absence of democratic scrutiny or any established political consensus.

“The policies by which self-declaration has been introduced have been shaped solely by reference to one interest group, namely those who identify as transgender, and have excluded consideration of the interests of other affected groups, particularly women.” 

She claimed such practices were causing harm and distress to victims of crime, some staff working in the criminal justice system and female prisoners as it amounted to a “denial of their own perceptions of reality”.

In a foreword, Joanna Cherry, QC deputy chair of the joint committee on human rights and SNP MP, criticised fellow parliamentarians for the “shocking abdication of their responsibility as law makers” over trans issues, and branded the treatment of those who speak out as “positively McCarthyite".

Politicians were named and criticised for refusing to define the term woman for fear of being labelled transphobic. The question was raised as to how to have an informed debate when these politicians abdicate their responsibility as lawmakers.

The law defines rape as “penile penetration without consent”. Self-identification of gender does not negate this fact. Only males have a penis.

The report called for an end to de facto self-declaration of “gender identity” so that the criminal justice system was aligned with the law.

It also recommended police data should be recorded on the basis of sex, the compelled use of “preferred pronoun” should be scrapped and suspects and defendants should be referred to on the basis of their sex.

It said all searches of police detainees should be carried out by police and prison officers of the same biological sex as the person being searched and all prisons should be made single sex.

Incredibly, the National Police Chiefs’ Council issued a statement that indicated a criminal can identify however they like and the police will accept it unless they deem it essential.

Binary spokeswoman, Kirralie Smith, said the policy is harmful to all.

“The justice system is meant to rely on facts, not feelings. Police and the courts should be trusted to deal solely in evidence when it comes to criminal matters,” she said.

“If they bend the rules on something as fundamental as biological sex what else will the bend the rules on?

“Allowing males to appropriate womanhood leads to women being put at great risk in the system, especially in prison.”