Nutmeg's week: Sandie Peggie, Dr Ronx, Dawn Butler

Another extraordinary week in the Sandie Peggie tribunal

We had the second week of the resumption of the tribunal hearing involving Sandie Peggie, Dr ‘Beth’ Upton and NHS Fife this week, and, somehow, it got even crazier.

First, a summary of how we got here.

Sandie was suspended from her job as an NHS Fife nurse after she confronted a man in a women’s changing room when she was experiencing menstrual flooding. The man, her colleague Dr ‘Beth’ Upton, complained about her, accusing her of bullying, harassment, ‘misgendering’ him and failing in patient care because of her ‘hostility’ to him. She then brought the tribunal case, citing sexual harassment and discrimination by both NHS Fife and Dr Upton.

The hearing began in February and, during the first phase, Dr Upton (a male doctor) asserted that he is a ‘biological female’. It then took a five-month break. During this time, the Supreme Court clarified that men like Dr Upton are ‘men’, and on the night before the hearing resumed this month, NHS Fife cleared Sandie of allegations of misconduct. This was not particularly good news for Upton or NHS Fife, given that their entire case seemed to rest on the claims that a) Upton is a woman and b) Sandie had acted unprofessionally.

Incredibly, the hearing progressed and last week we discovered that NHS Fife’s ‘trans policies’ were not written down, and were decided by a graduate who didn’t know what the law was or if she herself was a woman. She did somehow know that Upton was one.

This week, the tribunal continued to expose the shocking witch hunt Sandie has been subjected to by NHS Fife, simply because she didn’t want to change in front of a man.

It’s now emerged that after Upton ‘tearfully’ reported Sandie for confronting him in the women’s changing room, his line manager, Dr Kate Searle, immediately emailed him to express her support. She told him he had ‘the full support of the consultant and senior nursing team’ who were all aware of the ‘hate incident’, which she implied could be reported to the police. At this point, no internal investigation had occurred and Sandie had not even been spoken to. Searle then emailed at least 19 consultants to inform them of the incident, stating that ‘we condemn the actions of Sandie’, who she deemed to have acted in a ‘very confrontational and aggressive manner’.

Upton also made claims that Sandie had risked patient safety by refusing to communicate directly with him on patient-related matters. However, he said there had only been one witness to this - a healthcare assistant, Rehana Ashraf. Incredibly, Dr Searle admitted under cross-examination that she spoke to Ashraf before the internal investigation had started, something she now accepts was a ‘flagrant breach’ of confidentiality. Despite the interference, the tribunal heard that Ashraf’s recollection of what happened significantly contradicted Upton’s - in fact she said Sandie HAD discussed patient-related matters with him. Searle then left the room - herself now in tears - with Sandie’s lawyer, Naomi Cunningham, suggesting she was crying ‘out of a desire to protect yourself from the possible consequences’ of a potentially dishonest approach to her handling of the case.

It also emerged, following an IT trawl, that Searle, and several colleagues, had written emails to each other in early 2024 condemning Sandie. However, they were not submitted to the tribunal and Searle couldn’t explain why they weren’t. When cross-examining Searle, Cunningham called this omission ‘surprisingly incompetent or deliberately withholding’. Searle replied, ‘I’m a doctor and trustworthy.’ She then admitted that she and her colleagues ‘should not have written these things in a group email to witnesses’.

It was around this time, in January 2024, that Sandie was suspended - and it appears that Searle and her close colleagues were instrumental in that decision. Incredibly, NHS Fife’s HR department advised them not to suspend her, stating that Sandie had an impeccable 30-year record and a risk assessment needed to be carried out first, but this advice was ignored.

Sandie’s senior nursing colleagues, none of whom had ever reported an issue with her, also fell over themselves to support Upton and seemingly ignored proper procedure to do so. Clinical nurse manager Angela Glancey, who was tasked with conducting the internal investigation, admitted refusing to investigate claims that Upton was ‘a known troublemaker and a bully’. Glancey also met privately with Upton and allowed him to ‘make editorial changes’ to transcripts of their private meeting at his request.

When Sandie’s suspension was under review, further accusations arose, seemingly in order to prevent Sandie from returning to work. Sandie’s line manager, Esther Davidson, referred to her as ‘transphobic’ when asked to comment on the possibility of Sandie coming back. It transpired that the alleged ‘victim’ of a racist slur supposedly spoken by Sandie could not recall the incident. Similarly, the allegation that Sandie was homophobic and opposed to her own daughter’s lesbianism was refuted by Nicole Peggie (her daughter).

As well as being cleared of all allegations last week, clinical service manager Charlotte Myles confirmed when questioned that the complaints against Sandie were not detailed or verifiable.

One of the most bizarre aspects of this story is that senior clinicians and board members, almost all female, seemed to collectively lose their minds and devote themselves to acting solely in Upton’s interests. The desperate attempts to discredit Sandie, who has also been accused of bigotry because she showed support for Donald Trump, are so extreme that it seems undeniable that those responsible are devotees of transgender ideology. As Naomi Cunningham, acting for Sandie, asserted, she was ‘guilty of the unforgivable heresy’ of failing to pretend to believe Upton was a woman. There are many signs that NHS Fife is institutionally captured, from equality and human rights lead Isla Bumba’s claim that only one trans-identified man (rapist ‘Isla’ Bryson) is a danger to women, to the fact that ‘intersex’ was listed as a ‘gender identity’ on the NHS Fife website for three years. The website was suddenly updated this week.

This dedication to an extreme ideology over material reality is especially apparent in the evidence given by Dr Searle. Searle, who works in emergency medicine, claimed she didn’t know Upton is male because she couldn’t say what he was ‘assigned at birth’. Searle said she herself was ‘assigned female at birth’ and has an F on her birth certificate, so is therefore female, but she’s ‘not an expert in it.’

There were even more extraordinary developments to come. NHS Fife issued a 1,700-word statement - during its own tribunal hearing - alleging that Sandie’s legal team and the charity Sex Matters were attempting to manipulate public opinion and discredit the health board. It suggested (without evidence) that there were links between those parties and threats directed at staff.

The statement was so extreme that Scotland’s information commissioner said he might launch an investigation into it. NHS Fife then issued at least one, and possibly several, revised versions, adding, for instance: “NHS Fife is not seeking to suggest that anyone involved with Sex Matters have contributed to the behaviour or issues mentioned above.”

Evidence in the hearing has also revealed that Upton ‘transitioned’ in April 2023, and within just nine months had complained about both an elderly female patient for calling him ‘son’ and a female student doctor for not sufficiently supporting him after he’d been ‘misgendered’. He was also keeping notes on particularly female colleagues and how they were behaving with regards to his gender identity. We also now know that the nurses’ changing room he was in on December 24, 2023 was in a different part of the hospital to where he was working, which had its own doctors’ changing room.

And if you didn’t think this was ridiculous enough, on the same day that Dr Searle gave evidence, one of the directors of NHS Fife, and a Labour councillor who was Fife Council's spokesperson for health and social care, was convicted of sexual offences against a girl.

It was also revealed during the hearing that the lawyer representing NHS Fife once argued in court that the 'idea that human sex is binary causes enormous pain', and her husband is a trans activist Liberal Democrat hereditary peer.

And to top this most implausible week off, on Friday, an IT expert revealed that a log of interactions by Upton, which was used as evidence against Sandie, because it claims she risked patient safety, had been edited eight days after it was written. The original document, written on December 18, 2023, was just Upton moaning that Sandie hadn’t made eye contact with him. The changing room incident took place on December 24, 2023. The IT expert said on December 26, 2023 the log was edited to include a claim that Sandie had given a dismissive answer about a child patient.

The wholehearted, fanatical support of transgender ideology by senior figures at NHS Fife meant that almost nobody was brave enough to speak out about the dangers it posed to women and patients in general. When Sandie did object she was punished in the most brutal way possible as a warning to others. As a result of her refusal to stay silent, along with the efforts of Darlington Nurses and Jennifer Melle,, other nurses are now speaking out about the 'ferocious onslaught' they faced for advocating their right to a single-sex space.

Speaking of extraordinary statements and the Lib Dems

Surrey County Council, which has donated huge amounts of taxpayers’ money to Pride in Surrey, has now withdrawn its support, after its founder, Stephen Ireland, and another senior volunteer, were jailed for sexually abusing children. Absurdly, the council didn’t say this was due to the child abuse but because ‘Pride doesn’t represent the whole LGBT community’. (Pride in Surrey 2025 is still set to go ahead in September, however, as it has the support of Guildford Borough Council).

Pride in Surrey’s CEO, Charlie Watts, who was once in a crystal meth smoking polycule with a child rapist and a pup-playing fetishist, responded to the news. Did he talk about the changes he’d made since it emerged that his organisation was run by paedophiles? Did he say his only thoughts were with his ex boyfriend’s victims? Er, no. He just criticised Surrey County Council, saying it knew about the child rape issue last year and still supported the event then, and it’s not as if he’s brought in any changes since the convictions.

Meanwhile, Ireland’s friend, Lib Dem councillor Penny Rivers, is continuing to support Pride in Surrey via her two Facebook accounts (one personal and one political). Rivers, who promoted Ireland’s phoneline to children and won a Pride in Surrey ‘ally’ award just a few days before Ireland was arrested, has been named the new mayor of Waverley.

You’ll never guess the twist in this story

The person who sliced up a man with a sword who the BBC, and most of the media, described as a ‘woman’ is actually a man. The victim, his civil partner, was also a cross-dressing man, but for some reason the media referred to him as ‘her husband’.

The killer, ‘Joanna’, is the former transgender rep for the Civil Service’s LGBT group Proud, and made media appearances discussing violence against LGBT people. He was given an indefinite Hospital Order after confessing to the crime, amid suggestions that he had previously been housed in a women’s prison.

It wasn’t the best of weeks for people who argue that cross-dressing is a mentally healthy activity. A man was convicted of brutally murdering his baby in a hospital in Somerset, and after the trial it emerged that he is a transvestite. We also found out this week that a three-year-old girl’s body has been forced into puberty, and her health has been severely damaged for life, because her father exposed her to an estradiol gel he was taking, because he wanted to grow ‘breasts’. And our old friend Jamie Wallis, ‘Britain’s first trans MP’, whose wife just last week was granted a restraining order, was back in court this week as he allegedly had a false passport while he was an MP.

BBC News didn’t cover all of these stories and none of them were given a noteworthy status - in fact none were even tagged in the LGBT section of the BBC News website. This is the sort of story that was prominently tagged this week, however.

That’s all the crazy for this week

Except it’s not - in fact this might be the most insane story of the lot. Dr Ronx Ikharia is a celebrity doctor who has presented youth-based medical shows on the BBC. She describes herself as ‘non-binary’, and has repeatedly used her BBC platform to teach gender ideology to children, such as her support for puberty blockers.

This was her on a children’s BBC programme advising a girl who was suffering breathing difficulties with a binder to … keep wearing binders.

She has now launched a project in which she distributes badges, saying ‘Safe With Me’ for people to wear in public places. They will signify to any ‘trans people’ nearby that the badge-wearer will escort them to a toilet. This already sounds like a potential safeguarding disaster but it gets worse - she’s said, having crowdfunded more than £10,000 for this, that she will be sending the badges to schools, as well as shops, offices and public spaces. She says she also doesn’t think that the Supreme Court ruling is the ‘law’.

SEEN in Journalism has contacted the leadership of BBC Children, urging the BBC to cut all future ties with Dr Ronx and remove her existing content from BBC platforms.

With so many stories this week, there’s no room for the usual round-up of other BBC broadcasts and articles promoting cross-dressing men, but the BBC has published this history podcast. It’s a look at the history of drag queens, in which both the presenter (a trans activist who’s written about her support of Mermaids) and guest (a bog-standard trans activist) agree that anyone who doesn't like drag in 2025 is just the same ‘social conservative’ bigot looking for a ‘pet hate’ who has existed throughout history.

All going well with Labour?

Labour MP Tim Roca has been caught on camera saying that people who believe men can not become women are ‘swivel eyed and not very well’. He was speaking at a ‘Leading While Queer’ event for academics, in which he also criticised the Supreme Court ruling, and said the debate needs to be based on ‘facts’.

Not to be outdone, his colleague Dawn Butler made a speech in which she criticised the state of politics in the UK before presenting an award to an ‘asexual activist’.

And finally

A primary school in London has launched a project in which it highlights well known men to boys to give them role models to aspire to be like so they can grow up to be successful men. The first ‘man’ selected was … Elliot Page.

See you next week!