The Daily Telegraph

Rowling anger as toilet voyeur identifies as a female to police

- By Janet Eastham

A MAN who was accused of secretly filming women in a female lavatory told police he identified as a woman as he was arrested, with JK Rowling telling followers: “It’s happened again.”

The author shared news of the conviction on social media, writing: “That thing only evil, nasty bigots claim happens, and that never, ever happens, has happened. Again.”

The author shared a link on Twitter to a report of the sentencing of Kurtis Mawson, 22, who secretly filmed women in a public convenienc­e and sexually assaulted a tourist on Durham city bridge.

The court heard how Mawson was still inside the cubicle when police arrived. When an officer asked if anybody was in there, the perpetrato­r allegedly put on a high-pitched voice and answered “Yeah”. The prosecutor said: “When challenged with what he is doing in a women’s toilet he said: ‘Just chilling’. He then said he was there as he identified as female.”

After her initial post, Rowling issued a series of comments on Twitter stressing that women and girls should not have to “surrender” bathrooms to the very small number of “trans identified males” who she alleges pose a “proven danger” to them. She wrote: “It is possible to want trans people to be safe and happy while recognisin­g that there are risks to women and girls in eradicatin­g single sex spaces.”

Last year an Edinburgh judge gave an eight-year prison sentence to transgende­r rapist Isla Bryson, 31, who committed the offences while still living as a man. Bryson only began living as a woman after being charged with rape.

Rowling added: “Telling women and girls they must accept increased risk to themselves to appease male feelings is the very definition of the patriarchy.”

Mawson pleaded guilty to sexual assault on a female, voyeurism, three counts of making indecent photograph­s of a child and possessing an extreme pornograph­ic image. He also admitted breaching a sexual risk order and failing to comply with the sexual offender register.

‘Telling women they must accept risk to appease male feelings is the very definition of the patriarchy’

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