A TRANSGENDER woman who has been jailed for assault in a men’s prison has lost an appeal against her sentence.
Tara Hudson, who has lived as a woman all her adult life, was sentenced last week to 12 weeks imprisonment for headbutting a bar manager.
The 26-year-old was sent to HMP Bristol, a men’s prison in southwest England, where her lawyer, Nicholas Wragg, said she was “locked in a cell 23 hours a day.”
Wragg argued she should be released to do community service.
Earlier this week, Ms Hudson’s mother had pleaded for her to be able to be in a female prison environment, saying she would not be safe in a male jail.
“There’s nothing male about her, nobody would know the difference. She looks like a woman. She’s gorgeous,” she said.
“We think it’s totally outrageous. I don’t think she will cope well at all. I just feel the men are going to go after her. It’s going to be humiliating.”
A Change.org petition to see her transferred to a female prison has gathered 148,000 signatures so far. Online, her supporters say Ms Hudson is at “severe risk of both physical and mental harm” if she is not moved.
However three judges at Bristol Crown Court rejected Hudson’s appeal against the sentence Friday and said it was “for the prison service and not the court” to decide where it should be served.
But the judges urged “sensitive consideration” of where Hudson should be held.
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