Debbie Hayton Debbie Hayton

The shame of Sussex police

Officers should focus on reporting reality rather than protecting sex offenders from 'hateful comments'

John Stephen Dixon, also known as Sally Dixon, who abused several children (Credit: Sussex Police)

Just what is happening at Sussex police? Yesterday, the police force issued a grim press release: ‘Woman convicted of historic offences against children in Sussex’. But the woman in question was, in fact, not a woman at all: it was Sally Ann Dixon, born John Stephen Dixon, a paedophile who was jailed for abusing several children between the ages of six and 15.

When outraged women called out the police for this confusing statement, the response was swift: 

‘Hi, Sussex police do not tolerate any hateful comments towards their gender identity regardless of crimes committed. This is irrelevant to the crime that has been committed and investigated’

Whatever changes might have been made to Dixon’s body, Dixon has no gender recognition certificate and therefore remains legally male. Yet Sussex police prioritised protecting Dixon from ‘hateful comments’ rather than reporting reality. 

Women must not be blamed for the crimes of men

The woman who received that stern reply from the police – Sybil she calls herself – wanted some answers. Thinking perhaps about the Maya Forstater case, she replied: ‘Sussex police, I am exercising my gender critical views, which are protected in law. Can you advise whether making such statements is a crime?’

It beggars belief why Sussex police became involved in this conversation – on Twitter of all places – but they did, and they continued throwing yet more light on their thinking:

‘Hi, you can familiarise yourself with what is regarding as hate on our website here. 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’

Go away, and don’t bother us? Or, watch out! it might not be a hate crime but it could be a ‘hate incident’ – something that Sussex Police think should be ‘recorded by the police’.

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