A father who raped his own three-year-old daughter has demanded to be placed in a women’s prison in Tasmania, prompting the state government to declare it has banned trans-identifying male prisoners from women’s prisons.
The pedophile, described by Tasmanian prison sources as “the worst of the worst”, set up a camera to record himself engaging in sex acts with the girl while he was dressed in women’s clothing.
Multiple applications by the inmate for transfer to a women’s prison have been refused by Deputy Premier, Attorney-General and Corrections Minister Guy Barnett, who has now ordered the state’s corrections service to give “absolute priority” to the safety of female prisoners.
“The presence of any male prisoner in a women’s prison would present unacceptable safety risks to female prisoners,” Mr Barnett told The Australian.
The Tasmanian government’s hard line comes amid mounting pressure on state governments to act after Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro last month became the first leader of any Australian jurisdiction to ban trans offenders from women’s prisons. That declaration came in the wake of revelations by The Australian that a father who sexually abused his five-year-old daughter is being held in a Victorian female correctional centre because he now identifies as a woman, and that several women in prison in South Australian have been attacked – and in at least one case sexually assaulted – by notorious trans inmate Krista Richards.
The Tasmanian government’s tough stand was revealed in a letter from Mr Barnett to Women’s Forum Australia chief executive Rachael Wong, who had written to him seeking clarification of the state’s prisons policy.
Mr Barnett told Ms Wong he was not aware of any biological men currently in Tasmanian women’s prisons and that a recent request had been rejected.
“As minister, I expect the Department of Justice and Tasmanian Prison Service to absolutely prioritise safety of female prisoners, and I have made this expectation clear to the department and the TPS”, Mr Barnett said in the letter.
“I have recently been briefed on a request from a serious child sex offender to be placed in a women’s correction facility. That request has not been, and will not be accommodated.”
Mr Barnett did not identify the sex offender but The Australian understands he is an inmate identified in court records only as MGM, to protect the identity of the child. MGM had set up a camera and recorded himself engaging in sexual acts with the three-year-old while dressed in women’s clothing. The court was told the child still suffered nightmares, exhibited “challenging behaviour” and was developmentally delayed.
MGM was sentenced to six years imprisonment with a non-parole period of four years, and was sent to a minimum-security men’s prison, after being convicted on charges of indecent assault and producing child exploitation material. He became eligible for parole in February 2023.
A psychologist’s report prepared for the parole board noted that MGM’s offending “occurred during a time when he was significantly abusing drugs and this use had been contributed to by the applicant’s longstanding sexual and gender identity confusion”.
The parole board took into account that MGM had “taken steps to engage with appropriate supports in relation to his sexuality and gender identity” and granted him parole. He soon breached the conditions of his parole and was sent back to prison, where he again applied to be transferred to a women’s prison.
Ms Wong commended Mr Barnett’s decision to deny the request of “a dangerous male predator”, saying it was “the commonsense response the community expects to see from our leaders”.
“Unfortunately, however, this approach is in stark contrast with states like Victoria where another male pedophile has been housed in a women’s prison, and in South Australia, where the government has turned a blind eye to a violent male offender who has been sexually assaulting and terrorising women in the state’s female correctional facilities,” she said.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas will come under further scrutiny on Wednesday when Ms Wong and other women gather on the steps of Parliament House in Adelaide to protest over his failure to act in the case of several women who say they were assaulted by Richards, a violent inmate formerly known as Leslie Graham Richards. Women’s groups were shocked when Mr Malinauskas dismissed the matter as a “niche issue”, saying “I have not turned my mind to our policy pertaining to trans prisoners”.
Ms Wong will be joined by South Australian Liberal senator Leah Blyth and Giggle for Girls chief executive Sall Grover, calling on the Premier to amend corrections policy to remove all male offenders from women’s prisons.
Ms Wong said there had been no investigation into the allegations made by the women, and no accountability by the Premier.
“This is a shocking injustice and a cruel betrayal of incarcerated women, many of whom carry histories of sexual abuse and trauma,” she said. “By prioritising ideology over biological reality, the government is recklessly exposing female inmates to sexual assault, violence, and retraumatisation by male offenders.”
In one case revealed by The Australian, 29-year-old “Katie” said she was digitally penetrated in brutal sexual assault by the dominating 69-year-old Richards, while 30-year-old “Emma” revealed her “five months of hell” locked in a prison cell with the would-be hitman who “owns the jail”, seeks out “young, pretty, blonde” female inmates and boasts of having killed 14 people.
Several other inmates claim to have been assaulted by Richards, including one woman, “Jeni”, who told The Australian she was attacked in Adelaide Women prison in 2022 after an argument.
“It was after lockdown hours, and he got quite aggressive and walked over and physically grabbed me around the throat and threw me against the counter,” Jeni said. “He said, ‘I’ll punch your f..king head in’. It was very frightening, being a young woman, my first time in custody and then being attacked like that, it’s not something I ever want to relive. You see him praying on all these young little women, and it’s just so wrong. There’s been so many reports of verbal, physical, sexual abuse from him, and yet he’s still in a low security area where it’s not monitored 24/7.”
by Stephen Rice
Source: The Australian
or