Female inmate ‘in sex assault by transgender rapist at women’s jail’
A FORMER prisoner has spoken out against putting transgender inmates in women’s jails after being sexually assaulted by a paedophile rapist behind bars.
Laura Goldsmith, 38, has waived her right to anonymity to add to warnings about the dangers to vulnerable female inmates.
Her comments come in the aftermath of the Isla Bryson case. The double rapist was put in a women’s prison in Scotland after claiming to identify as female before being moved to a men’s jail after an outcry.
Ms Goldsmith was attacked by Karen White, born Stephen Wood, when she was on remand for grievous bodily harm. She said White carried out a campaign of abuse after being put in the jail despite not having surgery and even boasting of not having hormone treatment.
‘There is no doubt that some men are using the transgender issue to get themselves inside women’s prisons,’ said Ms Goldsmith. ‘They are doing it because they are scared of men’s prisons or because it gives them the opportunity to satisfy their perversions.
‘There are men trying to abuse the system and they are being allowed to do so. Women are being put at risk by the system placing predatory men in their prisons. There needs to be a lot more vetting.’
She described how she was battling drug addiction and was ‘frail and vulnerable’ when White, 57, targeted her in the exercise yard at HMP New Hall in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.
The convicted sex offender was ‘tall and well built’, intimidating Ms Goldsmith who is only 5ft 3in tall and weighed 7st.
‘She was very sleazy and forward,’ said Ms Goldsmith. ‘She had a really manly voice. I had seen her about and I heard she was a bit of a creep. She was asking me if I liked men or women.
‘I told her I was gay and she said, “We’ll see about that. I can make you not want women any more”.
‘She was speaking to me like a man, not a transgender woman.
‘She put her hand on my thigh and then slid it between my legs. I froze and then I was asking her to get off me. She grabbed my boob with her other hand. That’s when my friend came over and I got up.
‘She was on a mission. She was supposed to be taking hormones but said she hadn’t been taking them and asked if I could see the evidence of that.
‘She was saying, “I know you like that. I haven’t been taking my medication. Do you want to see?” I said, “No”. It was disgusting.’
Ms Goldsmith avoided the exercise yard for months but White harassed her when she went out again. ‘She would try to grab me,’ said Ms Goldsmith, who was inside for burglary. ‘She would slap my bum, follow me and say, “I know you want it”.
‘ When she threw her arm around me, it was more of a headlock. I could feel the strength behind her and it was scary. She was manipulative and creepy.
‘She was there to prey on vulnerable people and she was doing it in plain sight.
‘ The prison officers were sitting across the exercise yard drinking coffee and chatting.’ The abuse affected Ms Goldsmith long-term, leaving her on anti-depressants and suffering nightmares.
In 2018 at Leeds Crown Court, White was given life for raping two women outside jail and sexually assaulting two inmates at New Hall the previous year.
Now Ms Goldsmith has revealed she was also a victim. White was sent to a male prison after admitting the assaults.