Police halt probe on mother who called trans woman ‘him’
POLICE probing a series of tweets by a Roman Catholic mother which referred to a transgender woman as ‘him’ are preparing to drop their controversial investigation.
Officers are looking to stop the fivemonth ‘hate crime’ inquiry as the pursuit of priest’s wife Caroline Farrow threatened to turn into a fiasco, with critics blasting it as a waste of time and money.
And yesterday Susie Green, the transgender activist who went to police about the tweets, announced she was withdrawing her complaint because she did not want to give the Catholic writer a public platform.
The inquiry began in October, when police received an allegation about social media posts which appeared to refer to Miss Green’s transgender daughter as ‘him’.
A month earlier the two women had clashed during a debate on ITV’s breakfast show Good Morning Britain about the Girl Guides allowing children who have changed gender to join the organisation.
In tweets following the show Miss Farrow referred to Miss Green’s daughter Jackie as ‘him’ – and said the Mermaids trans rights charity founded by Miss Green was promoting child abuse.
The 25-year-old began hormone treatment to change gender before her teens, and at 16 her mother took her to Thailand for gender reassignment surgery, as NHS rules ban it for under-17s.
This Monday Miss Farrow, 44, had a phone call from Surrey Police asking her to attend an interview under caution.
The mother of five said the officer had told her the tweets had ‘misgendered’ an individual by using the wrong pronoun, which could be an offence under the Malicious Communications Act.
After the row appeared across the media yesterday, Miss Green said in an interview on BBC2’s Victoria Derbyshire show that she was withdrawing her complaint.
She claimed Miss Farrow’s tweets were malicious and it was ‘not just the misgendering’ issue. She added: ‘If I had continued the complaint then Caroline Farrow would have had the platform to continue to spread misinformation about what actually happened.
‘Being in an investigation would mean I couldn’t talk about what was put online by a journalist with this social media platform.
‘I wouldn’t have been able to discuss it because I would have come up against a possible court case.’
She added: ‘We stand for trans rights and we also say to people who receive online communications that are malicious and nasty that they should report them as hate incidents.
‘I didn’t feel as the CEO of a charity that supports transgender children and young people that it was right that I didn’t do the same when I was subjected to that.’
Miss Farrow said on Twitter yesterday: ‘This is a public witchhunt. Whether or not I am in breach of the Malicious Communications Act or have broken the law needs to be investigated by the police & a court of law. Not the @vicderbyshireshow.’
Last night Surrey Police officers were trying to contact Mrs Green to get a formal withdrawal statement to confirm she no longer wished to pursue the allegations.
The force has been criticised for pursuing the case, and accused of wasting time, effort and money on appeasing a powerful pressure group. Criminologist Dr David Green, chief of the Civitas think tank, said: ‘This appears to be a case of hurt feelings.
‘The police should have understood that, but they are so concerned with polishing their image and making themselves look good with pressure groups that they have forgotten justice.’
Barrister Laura Perrins, of the Conservative Woman website, said: ‘This has been a disgraceful waste of police resources. This Orwellian policing of language must stop.’
Police are investigating a second woman over allegations she made transphobic comments about Miss Green, it emerged yesterday.
Women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, 44, a mother of four, has been interviewed by both West Yorkshire and Wiltshire officers accused of committing a hate crime. The allegations relate to six tweets and two YouTube videos she posted criticising Miss Green for supporting her daughter’s transition.
Mrs Keen-Minshull, who is waiting to hear if she will be charged over her comments, told the Telegraph: ‘I think it is outrageous the police are wasting valuable time investigating people because their views might not be liked.’