Tell IPSO we need truthful crime reporting where sex is concerned.

Another petition, I'm afraid

(Sorry for the re-post, paid subscribers! I didn’t click the right thing yesterday so you’re seeing this twice.)

Our War On Women author, JL, is getting sick of seeing abusive men given female pronouns in news stories, so we’ve got a petition together to try and do something about it. Please sign and share!

Text follows.

---

We can no longer trust the press to report on something as basic as the sex of violent criminals and sex offenders. 

Over the past few years there have been innumerable news stories which demonstrate the appalling lies told in crime reporting when suspects and perpetrators claim to ‘identify as a woman’.

Rapists, murderers, paedophiles and voyeurs are being described as women, and even ‘female’, if that’s how they identify, with their true sex concealed from the public.

In October last year The Daily Mail reported on paedophile sex offender, Rachel Smith.

Rachel Smith is male but a Daily Mail article described him as a woman, called him ‘female’ and referred to him as ‘she’ and ‘her’ throughout.

The same is true of local Tyneside newspaper, The Chronicle.

One of the readers commenting on The Daily Mail article said “Ridiculous. If it were a fella would have been locked up and rightly so”.

Rachel Smith is a fella. But nobody was told.

Earlier this year a trans-identified male with previous convictions for sexual assault was sentenced to 5 years in prison after trying to frame his former lover as a paedophile. All the newspaper reports about the case referred to him with female pronouns and called him a woman.

Again, these comments beneath The Daily Mail article demonstrate how vital it is to accurately report a criminal’s biological sex.

“Denen” (nee Stephen) Anderson researched and downloaded images of child abuse and was sentenced in February 2019. When reporting on this case, newspapers such as The Courier, The Daily Record and The Dundee Evening Telegraph, referred to him as a woman and used female pronouns. No mention was made of Anderson’s true sex and the public were left believing a woman had committed these atrocious crimes. 

A trans-identified male was caught in an online ‘sting’ operation by paedophile hunters. Jessica Smith sent numerous sexually explicit messages and photographs to two people he believed to be 14-year-old schoolgirls.

Most of the press reports called Smith a woman and used female pronouns. Some had to perform linguistic gymnastics to describes him as being ‘in male persona’ or ‘dressed as a man’ when caught by the vigilantes. 

In March this year convicted murderer, David Hunnisett (often referred to in the media as Christopher Hunnisett), lost his appeal.

Hunnisett began ‘identifying as a woman’ in prison five years ago and calls himself Crystal. In reporting on his failed appeal, media outlets, including the BBC and the Evening Standard, referred to him with female pronouns. 

Last year a trans identified male who downloaded more than 80,000 images of child sexual abuse was sentenced to nine months imprisonment. The press reports, like this one from Lancashire Live, referred to him as a woman and used female pronouns.

A similar story from Sheffield in 2019 saw a male apprehended with over 1,000 indecent images of children was described in the local paper as a woman.

In a world where the reporting and dissemination of news is immediate and far-reaching, it is vital we are able to trust our press to tell us the truth. Especially about something as basic and important as the sex of violent and sexually violent criminals.

It’s obvious that the IPSO guidelines on transgender reporting are no longer fit for purpose. Please join us in telling them that we will not put up with being lied to.