Being ‘Trans’ Is Now a Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Card

Do crimes not count if you’re transgender? A trans paedophile in Belgium is asking the judge to spare him a prison sentence, after he kidnapped a boy and was caught in possession of child pornography. Reduxx reports that the man, who remains unnamed and is being referred to as “D” in the Belgian media, is arguing that his status as a ‘transwoman’ means it would be unfair for him to go to jail. 

D also used to work as a bus driver at a juvenile facility in Ghent. In 2022, he was arrested following an inquiry into a teenage boy who vanished from the facility. Police already knew that D had private contact with several minors there, and tracked his movements as part of the search. Investigators later found that he had taken the missing boy across the border to Germany for three days. Upon searching D’s home, police found child sexual abuse material on his devices, some of which were photos and videos depicting local minors. 

Last year, D was acquitted of one of the child pornography charges, but was sentenced to 40 months in prison for the other crimes, including the kidnapping. He has since lodged an appeal, asking that he be given probation instead of being locked away. His lawyer is seeking to do so on the grounds that D’s transition from man to woman had stunted his development, arguing that he wasn’t acting in a predatory manner towards the children, but wanted to befriend them as his peers. In court this month, his lawyer claimed that D had acted like a “mother figure” to the boys he targeted. To make matters worse, D already had a record of child sex offences. In 2021, he was convicted of raping a 13-year-old boy and sentenced to five years, with only two to be served in custody. On appeal, the sentence was fully suspended and he was released.

Hopefully common sense prevails here, and the Belgian justice system will decide that D should be locked away, where he can harass, scare, and assault minors no longer. But given D’s previous success in appealing his sentences, that might not be as certain as you’d hope. 

More broadly, this is a disturbingly common occurrence. Earlier this year, a German court awarded a ‘transwoman’ who helped traffic girls as young as five a shockingly lenient sentence. In May, the man, identified only as Arbend S., was sentenced to five years and six months in prison for supplying a millionaire paedophile, Helmut Reiner Dorsch, with young girls. Arbend would gain the children’s trust and lure them towards Dorsch, in some cases even convincing girls’ mothers to become prostitutes so that Arbend and Dorsch could gain access to their daughters. Many of these girls, often under the age of eight, were then raped by Dorsch. Despite the unfathomably horrific nature of these crimes, Arbend was handed a reduced sentence on account of his trans identity. As Arbend was legally still male, he was considered to be in danger of “heightened prison sensitivity.” A court spokesperson told Reduxx that him being transgender served as a mitigating factor. 

Also in Germany last February, a transgender 52-year-old stood trial for possessing more than 70 files of child pornography on multiple devices. In court, he claimed that the material had been used for “identity finding” and helped him come to terms with supposedly being a woman. Incredibly, the judge agreed, giving him a suspended sentence.  

There have been several cases like these in the UK, too. In 2023, Dominic (now Sophie) Carter admitted three counts of making indecent images of children from 2021. By the time of his hearing, Carter had begun identifying as trans and appeared in court wearing a pink T-shirt, headband, and nail polish. His lawyer then sought a suspended sentence, citing childhood trauma, long-term alcohol abuse, and mental-health problems. Despite five prior convictions, the court agreed, imposing six months’ custody suspended for 18 months. The judge did not explicitly link the outcome to Carter’s gender identity, but it seemed as though this played at least some role in getting Carter a more lenient sentence than he perhaps deserved. Since then, Carter has reappeared in court four more times, and was jailed for six months this year after he broke the orders imposed by his conviction. 

Being trans was very explicitly factored in when it came to sentencing Tanya Howes, also in 2023. The ‘transwoman’ had been caught possessing indecent images of children, 39 of which were considered Category A, the most serious category of child pornography. While this kind of crime would normally see an offender put behind bars for at least six months, Howes was spared jail entirely. The authorities were unsure of which prison—male or female—to place Howes in. As a result, he was handed a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years. Provided he doesn’t breach the conditions of this or break the law again, this means that Howes will not see the inside of a jail cell for his crimes. 

Nor will Peter Selby, who pleaded guilty to downloading 125,000 indecent pictures of children—some of which included children as young as three years old. Yet Selby’s 14-month prison sentence was suspended for two years, on the grounds that his identity as a transwoman “caused issues… and anxiety” in how he would “cope” with being “sent immediately to prison.” 

No wonder we’ve seen so many of these cases recently—if criminals see others get away with it, the trans defence can easily become a common and effective way to dodge accountability. It seems like calling yourself transgender is enough to turn a perverse criminal into a helpless victim. Courts are allowing offenders’ self-professed identities to trump the gravity of literal sex crimes. Our justice systems—which are supposed to uphold equality before the law as one of the most vital and basic principles—have apparently taken on board the identitarian belief that all trans people are vulnerable, oppressed victims, no matter what horrific acts they commit. 

Since when did a predator’s feelings become more important than the safety of children? Trans ideology is putting members of the public at serious risk here. This is a terrifying development. If any criminal is allowed to cry trans and will be rewarded with leniency for it, we hollow out the entire concept of justice. We should be able to trust that any dangerous criminal is locked away for an appropriate amount of time, regardless of whether they decide to throw on some lippy and start calling themselves ‘Barbara.’ No one should be able to self-identify out of consequences.