{"id":28783,"date":"2024-12-22T05:59:25","date_gmt":"2024-12-22T10:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=28783"},"modified":"2024-12-22T05:59:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-22T10:59:25","slug":"transgender-woman-wins-court-case-for-transfer-to-female-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2024\/12\/22\/transgender-woman-wins-court-case-for-transfer-to-female-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Transgender woman wins court case for transfer to female prison"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A transgender woman won a High Court case to be transferred to Northern Ireland’s female prison while being held on charges of threatening to kill her neighbour, it has emerged.<\/b><\/p>\n

Michelle James, 63, was moved from Maghaberry Prison to Hydebank Wood on Thursday after taking court proceedings.<\/p>\n

The move happened after the Department of Justice accepted there was a lack of policy in place for transgender prisoners and consented to the transfer.<\/p>\n

Details emerged in court as Ms James, of Main Road in Cloughey, was granted bail to return to her home address on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"The<\/picture><\/span><\/div>
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Hydebank Wood holds about 150 women and young men across two premises (Image: Michael Cooper)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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The retired chef faces a charge of threats to kill in connection with an incident earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Prosecuting counsel Stephanie Boyd said Ms James informed police that called to the scene that she was planning to use a knife on either herself or a man living nearby due to ongoing issues between them.<\/p>\n

“She said she would stab the neighbour and feel happy about it,” Mrs Boyd submitted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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‘Referred to her dead name’<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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Defence barrister Sean Doherty told the court Ms James initially got on well with the alleged victim.<\/p>\n

“She felt comfortable enough to confide in the complainant and tell him her story,” he said.<\/p>\n

“However, her confidence was betrayed and she was (allegedly) subjected to bullying by the neighbour who referred to her by her birth name, what she calls her dead name.”<\/p>\n

The barrister argued that Ms James phoned police “in desperation” and at no stage ever issued any threats directly to the man.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Doherty said she was initially remanded in custody at Maghaberry before proceedings were brought earlier this week to secure the prison switch.<\/p>\n

With Ms James seeking permission to return to her home address, Mr Doherty insisted it would be disproportionate to keep her in custody on the charges.<\/p>\n

Mr Justice Shaw agreed to release her on bail under a strict order not to contact the complainant.<\/p>\n

Speaking outside the court, Ms James’ solicitor Joseph Mulholland said the policy gap on transgender people in custody “has caused unnecessary delays and distress”.<\/p>\n

“It is imperative that this policy vacuum is addressed as a matter of urgency to ensure fair and appropriate treatment for all.”<\/p>\n

BBC News NI has contacted the Department of Justice for comment.<\/p>\n

Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A transgender woman won a High Court case to be transferred to Northern Ireland’s female prison while being held on charges of threatening to kill her neighbour, it has emerged. Michelle James, 63, was moved […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,2,4],"tags":[10926,3646,10925,10750,1864,5071,1633,8304],"class_list":{"0":"post-28783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-human-rights","8":"category-news","9":"category-uk","10":"tag-cloughey","11":"tag-department-of-justice","12":"tag-hydebank-wood-prison","13":"tag-maghaberry-prison","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-prisons","16":"tag-transgender","17":"tag-transgender-rights","18":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28783"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28785,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28783\/revisions\/28785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}