A notorious transgender sexual predator who sexually assaulted female prisoners now says she should never have been placed in a women’s prison.
Convicted pedophile and rapist Karen White, born a man, assaulted female inmates during a three-month reign of terror at New Hall women’s prison in West Yorkshire.
White, 57, who still has male genitalia, was transferred to a men’s prison and later sentenced to life in prison for a series of sex crimes.
Now, in a four-page letter to a women’s rights campaigner, sent from his cell at Frankland Prison, County Durham, the 6ft tall White urges the government to keep women transgender people outside women’s prisons unless they have undergone surgery.
White said “all I could see was fear on the faces” of the inmates when they arrived at New Hall prison five years ago. “They would have seen me as a man dressed as a woman and as a threat to them,” writes White, who was described as an “imposing figure wearing a blonde wig.”
Pedophile and rapist Karen White, born a man, assaulted female inmates during a three-month reign of terror at New Hall women’s prison, West Yorkshire.

White, 57, who still has male genitalia, was transferred to a men’s prison and later sentenced to life in prison for a series of sex crimes.
She says “transgender women should not be in a women’s prison,” adding: “I’m talking about all transgender women, not on a case-by-case basis, until they have undergone full reassignment surgery, because everything depends on the women in the women’s prison and their safety must be ensured. primordial.
“Housing transgender women who have not had full surgery continues to put these vulnerable women at risk on a daily basis and those who know this (sic) should be able to feel this in their safe environment.”
White, born Stephen Wood, is serving his life sentence at Category A prison Frankland for several rapes, sexual assaults and grievous bodily harm.
They saw me as a man – and a threat to them
The women’s rights activist who received the letter said: “It came like a bolt from the blue. Feminists have been warning for years that women’s spaces should be protected for the sake of women’s safety and now this letter shows that even trans women agree. In the letter, White says she told court officials while on remand in 2017 that she should not be placed in a women’s prison.
She claims a magistrate told her she would be held in a women’s prison because she had been living as a woman in “the community” for two years.

White, born Stephen Wood, is serving a life sentence at Category A prison Frankland for several rapes, sexual assaults and grievous bodily harm.
White will serve at least nine and a half years before being considered for parole after admitting to sexually assaulting two female prisoners and raping two other women.
The judge at Leeds Crown Court described White as “predatory and highly manipulative”. She attacked the two New Hall inmates while on remand after stabbing her 66-year-old neighbor with a knife.
One of the prisoners who accused White, Cheryle Kempton, later told the Mail on Sunday how White asked her to perform a sex act, grabbed her breasts and pressed himself against her while she was aroused .
White’s letter fuels debate over whether men who identify as women should have unfettered access to women’s spaces, following a number of sex scandals.
This year, the government introduced regulations banning trans women with male genitalia who are violent or sex offenders from serving time in women’s prisons.
Exemptions can only be granted in exceptional cases and with the approval of ministers.
The guidelines came into force after this newspaper revealed that a transgender murderer with male genitalia had consensual sex with a female inmate and allegedly sexually assaulted another at Bronzefield Women’s Prison, west of London.
Last night, Liz Hogarth, a former Justice Department official, said policy on trans prisoners should not be reversed. She added: “Most women are extremely vulnerable after experiencing multiple and complex traumas, including male violence. It is never appropriate to prioritize the needs of trans-identified men over those of these women.
In Scotland, prison bosses halted the movement of transgender sex offenders this year after a fierce backlash against the sending of double rapist Isla Bryson to a women’s prison. She was then transferred to the men’s prison.