Julie Bindel Julie Bindel

Meet the thug who was spared jail for being transgender

In today’s episode of ‘You Couldn’t Make It up’, I bring you Leila Le Fey, also known as Layla Le Fey, Adam Hodgson and Marcus Smith. Le Fey had pleaded guilty to common assault and possession of an offensive weapon after trying to steal wine from a Budgens in Brighton. When confronted by the shopkeeper, Le Fey threatened him with a claw hammer.

Le Fey, who has previously been convicted of possessing a knife in public, was definitely looking at a spell in clink. Judge Stephen Mooney originally sentenced Le Fey to six months in prison, telling Le Fey at Lewes Crown Court that there was “no excuse” for such behaviour.

‘When you took out the claw hammer it must have been terrifying,’ he said. ‘It must be immediate custody because I see nothing in the offence itself or indeed in you that would render it unjust for me not to implement it,’ the judge said.

But an hour after being sent down, Le Fey was brought back to court. Why? Judge Mooney was persuaded to change the sentence because Le Fey had no Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) to prove his ‘legal gender’ (sex) and therefore would have to be sent to a men’s prison.

‘Having reflected again upon the impact an immediate custodial sentence would have, the difficulties there are and the intractable problems the prison service would face, I have reconsidered whether imprisonment must be immediate,’ the judge told the court.

Instead, Le Fey was handed a six-month suspended sentence. This would seem to be a message to any men who fancy getting away with a prison sentence if unlucky enough to be caught.

But will the offence committed by Le Fey be recorded as a woman committing it, despite there being no GRC? If so, it would appear ‘self

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