Sophie Cook, The CPS & 'Speaking Out'
On Tuesday 31st May Sophie Cook announced his appointment to a key diversity role at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Director of Public Prosecutions, Max Hill QC, publicly welcomed Cook to the CPS on social media.
But he turned off the replies. Perhaps he was already be aware that Cook is a controversial choice for this role.
The CPS is the publicly-funded body that prosecutes serious crime in England and Wales. Cook has just been appointed as its ‘Speak Out Champion’ a new role which, according to the online vacancy advertisement, offers £31,304 pa for an expected time commitment of around four days per month. The job description details the nature and purpose of the role as follows:
Sophie Cook is a trans rights activist and former political hopeful who describes himself as a ‘writer, speaker, actor, broadcaster and photographer’. An RAF veteran, he was married twice and has fathered children. He transitioned in 2015 at the age of 48.
Concerns have been raised over Cook’s suitability for the role to which he has just been appointed, particularly in respect of his representing the best interests of the female CPS staff.
Cook does not seem to have had much respect for women and women’s voices in the past and he has a history of trying to erase their rights and spaces.
In 2018 he appeared on BBC’s Newsnight, supporting use of the term ‘womxn’ in order for the sex class ‘women’ to be more inclusive (of males).
He is in favour of allowing males to compete in female sports, even a dangerous contact sport like rugby.
The comment above was made in May 2021, several months after World Rugby had published guidelines barring trans-identified males from the women’s game due to the proven risks to female players and increased danger of serious injury.
And he doesn’t seem to think that there’s a problem with a 14-year-old girl being forced to shower with a male.
He seems to have a rather cavalier attitude to women’s boundaries and has previously defended rape by deception.
The Sexual Offences Act requires consent to sexual intercourse to be informed. Non-disclosure of one’s trans history can be seen as deception and a breach of the act, inhibiting the ‘freedom and capacity’ to consent to sexual activity. Consequently, someone concealing their true sex from their sexual partner could face rape charges.
Cook, however, does not believe that knowledge of a person’s sex is a necessity when consenting to sexual activity with them.
“Transgender people are entitled to a private life and the personal choice as to how much of their history they disclose”, he said, claiming that ‘forcing transgender people to disclose their history to prospective partners’ is ‘infringing their ‘human rights’.
He doesn’t show the same concern for the ‘human rights’ of women who may prefer to know the sex of the person with whom they are physically intimate.
Cook stood as the Labour Party’s parliamentary candidate for East Worthing and Shoreham in the 2017 general election. In 2018 he graduated from the Jo Cox Women in Leadership programme, having enjoyed the benefits of a scheme intended to increase female representation in Parliament.
The same year Cook was, again, shortlisted as a candidate for the Worthing and Shoreham seat. He was supported by both Momentum and the Unite Union.
Allegations over his past ‘financial irregularities’ then surfaced. According to The Brighton & Hove News, these allegations concerned Cook’s former company, Seeker Photography Ltd, which went bankrupt in 2013 owing almost £90,000. The liquidator’s report suggests that Cook and his then wife had borrowed around £25,000 from the company and there was little possibility of that money being recovered.
It was reported that Cook had not informed the selection panel about this issue in his first round interview and that, when committee members tried to remove him from the shortlist, the National Executive Committee enforced his retention as a candidate.
When Cook was, eventually, deselected, he stood as an independent candidate against the Labour Party nominee.
In the past, Cook has attacked Professor Kathleen Stock for her upholding of women’s sex-based legal rights, claiming her views are ‘damaging’ and ‘put students at risk’.
He has also called Stock’s views ‘anti'-trans’ and mocked her efforts to protect herself from discrimination.
He has described Mumsnet as ‘a centre for transphobic hate’.
He has described the LGB Alliance as an ‘anti-trans hate group’ and wants to rob it of charitable status.
He called Transgender Trend a ‘hate group’ and campaigned to ban its invaluable schools pack. (Transgender Trend director, Stephanie Davies-Arai, has just been awarded the BEM for her services to children.)
And, of course, he throws around the word ‘terf’ with impunity.
Little wonder, then, that serious concerns have been expressed about Cook’s suitability for this role. The CPS ‘speak out champion’ is intended to be ‘a visible champion for employee’s concerns’ and requires total impartiality in order that staff can ‘speak openly about their experiences’.
What happens if those employees are women defending their sex-based rights and spaces? Will Cook ‘speak out’ for them?
As Sarah Phillimore writes in The Critic, “Diversity and inclusion are unlikely to be served by appointing another white, middle aged man as their champion”.
Thank you so much for this -- very thorough. This one really got to me -- an AGP woman-hating, rape apologist is paid (by the public) to bully, and proselytize, for the 'gender' cult. Watched his TEDx Brighton talk -- all he talks about is his suicidal ideation, a common ploy of controlling abusers. Speak Out Champion? For whom? Not for decent, law abiding people, that's for sure. Better he'd been appointed as Shut Up Champion, with his contract terms stipulating that he never again utter another public word.
Thank you JL. I couldn't believe this when I saw his appointment. I knew his name and backstory and have been reading through his Tweets again. It's a litany. It was a double take at his name - this is grotesque from start to finish and that they openly and proudly have employed this openly misogynist man who uses such incautious and aggressive, insulting language to women under the guise of EDI 'trans rights'. This is a man. The CPS have lost even more respect, if that was possible. What the f**k are they playing at? He is clearly not a fit and proper person for that role.
Rape conviction rates? Hello? Anyone? What is the CPS culture and how did it get so utterly rotten? If you can convince the police - where he 'trains' them and is shown cheesily smiling with officers - to investigate crimes then you face the CPS barrier. We have no chance. And we hear this message loud and clear.