Sussex Police has apologised for telling individuals to not make “hateful comments” a couple of intercourse offender’s gender identification – after the house secretary advised the pressure to “focus on catching criminals” moderately than “denying biology”.
The row broke out when some individuals on Twitter objected to the pressure referring to Sally Ann Dixon, who was jailed for 20 years for 30 indecent assaults she dedicated as a person, as a “woman convicted of historic offences against children”.
Dixon, from Havant in Hampshire, dedicated the crimes in opposition to 5 women and two boys between 1989 and 1996.
At the time she was generally known as John Stephen Dixon.
The 58-year-old transitioned to feminine in 2004.
Sussex Police responded to the remarks by tweeting that it doesn’t “tolerate any hateful comments” in direction of an individual’s gender identification “regardless of crimes committed”.
The pressure mentioned: “This is irrelevant to the crime that has been committed and investigated.”
Home Secretary Suella Braverman tweeted in response: “@Sussex_police have done well to put a dangerous criminal behind bars.
“But they have it fallacious by taking part in identification politics and denying biology. Focus on catching criminals not policing pronouns.”
Shortly after the house secretary’s intervention, Sussex Police launched a press release which learn: “An earlier reply to a comment on Twitter was inconsistent with our usual style of engagement; we apologise for this and have removed the comment.
“We recognise the rights of the general public to precise themselves freely throughout the boundaries of the legislation.”
‘Sex of perpetrator is not irrelevant’
The force also confirmed Dixon’s crimes were recorded as being committed by a man after Twitter users raised concerns about the issue.
Karen Ingala Smith, who founded Femicide Census, an organisation which provides information on women who have been killed by men in the UK, tweeted in response to the force’s initial comment: “The intercourse of the perpetrator actually will not be irrelevant in crimes of sexual violence in opposition to kids, for instance charges of perpetration differ massively by intercourse.
“Moreover, if crimes committed by males are recorded as crimes by females then policy based on crime data will be hopeless.”
Risk of ‘skewing figures’
Frances Crook, former chief government of the Howard League for Penal Reform, now co-convenor of the Commission on Political Power, mentioned 15,000 males are in jail convicted of intercourse crimes, in comparison with round 100 girls.
She mentioned allocating even just a few male crimes to girls would “skew the figures”.
Ms Crook tweeted earlier than Sussex Police issued its apology: “Hi @sussex_police can you tell us if this crime was counted as being committed by a man or a woman?
“He was male when he dedicated the offences.
“Men commit an overwhelming majority of sex/violent crimes and just a few male crimes allocated to women would skew the figures.”
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Responding to 1 Twitter person who mentioned she was exercising her gender important views, Sussex Police had mentioned she might familiarise herself with what’s thought to be hate on its web site, including: “If you have gender critical views you wish to express this can be done on other platforms or your own page, not targeted at an individual.”
Dixon, who can be topic to a sexual hurt prevention order indefinitely, was sentenced on 8 September.
Source: information.sky.com”