Forbes: Trans butcher who abused girl must be held in men’s jail
A TRANSGENDER butcher who kidnapped and sexually abused a girl during a horrific 27-hour ordeal must serve his sentence in a men’s prison, a former SNP leadership candidate has said.
Kate Forbes said yesterday that Andrew Miller must ‘without a shadow of doubt’ always be held in the male prison estate.
She made the comments after First Minister Humza Yousaf refused to say if the 53-year-old would be held in a men’s or women’s jail.
Miller, who is transitioning and is also known as Amy George, lured the primary school pupil into his Jaguar as she walked home, then trapped her in his house in the Borders, where he subjected her to sustained abuse.
Asked yesterday on Times Radio about Mr Yousaf’s stance on Miller, Ms Forbes said: ‘I think without a shadow of doubt he should be retained in the male estate – and I think the general public are largely on side with that.
‘I mean, that report is just hideous... It makes your skin crawl, it makes me feel physically sick to hear what somebody would do to an innocent primary school girl.
‘My perspective is justice has got to be served on this man.’
Mr Yousaf said it would be ‘inappropriate’ to decide on a jail for Miller when sentencing had still to happen. At the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday, Miller admitted four charges – abduction, sexual assault, watching pornography in the presence of the child under the age of 13, and possessing more than 240 indecent images of children.
Judge Lord Arthurson condemned Miller’s ‘abhorrent crimes’, which were ‘the realisation of every parent’s worst nightmare’.
The court heard how he had approached the child in February this year, just before 6pm, to offer her a lift.
Miller then took her to his house, where he discarded her mobile phone. He subjected her to acts of sexual assault in his bedroom over the course of the next 27 hours. Miller was dressed as a woman and made his victim watch pornography.
During the second evening of the girl’s abduction, after Miller had fallen asleep in bed next to her, she found the landline phone and called police, saying she had been touched inappropriately, the court heard.
Ms Forbes, who narrowly lost to Mr Yousaf in the SNP leadership contest, has strongly opposed the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill.
The legislation passed by the Scottish Government would lower the minimum age for someone to apply for a gender recognition certificate from 18 to 16, and would also remove the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Her intervention yesterday came as she refused to rule out standing again to be SNP leader if Mr Yousaf is forced to quit after the general election.
Asked by Times Radio if she would throw her hat into the ring again, the former finance secretary said: ‘It is highly unlikely.’ But she added: ‘I don’t believe that in politics, or indeed in life, you can ever say never because life is full of unpredictable surprises.’
‘Abhorrent crimes’
It should be uncontroversial that Kate Forbes has said transgender butcher andrew Miller must serve his sentence in a male prison.
But frankly, in modern-day Scotland, a politician displaying such candour over this issue is almost unheard of.
after Miller admitted his crimes, humza Yousaf refused to say whether he would go to a jail for men or women.
Ms Forbes is one of the few SNP politicians to voice any objection to her party’s controversial transgender reforms.
Now the former finance secretary is unequivocal – Miller should ‘without a shadow of a doubt’ be held in a male rather than a female prison. her strong Christian beliefs saw her pilloried during the race to replace Nicola Sturgeon, but she took Mr Yousaf, the eventual winner, to the wire – he only scraped a win.
Many in the party clearly agree with her opposition to the SNP’s trans reforms while, according to polls, two-thirds of Scots object to the key pillars of the stalled legal changes proposed by the SNP.
Inevitably, Miller’s conviction has reignited the toxic row over the transgender Bill. the case provides an overwhelming argument for safeguards to protect women from violent men – of a kind that were voted down by Nationalist MSPs.
the tories have warned that Miller’s crimes are an illustration of how sex predators abuse the system to prey on vulnerable women and girls.
Yet disgracefully Shona Robison, now Deputy First Minister, said during the parliamentary debate on the transgender legislation there was no evidence this would ever happen. It’s another example of the tin-eared SNP driving ahead with shambolic reforms without having listened to constructive criticism.
Worse, its many critics were demonised and marginalised for months and Ms Sturgeon dismissed their concerns as ‘not valid’. Miller – now facing a long prison term – has refocused attention on the proposed changes to the law on gender self-identification, which were rightly blocked by the UK Government.
the SNP has vowed to attempt to salvage them in an expensive legal fight but it’s hard to see what purpose this doubtless protracted process will serve.
Instead, Mr Yousaf should accept that the Bill approved by the Scottish parliament is seriously flawed and opposed by the majority of voters. the safety of women and children should be prioritised over the SNP’s determination to cling to the wreckage of its botched Bill.