BREAKING NEWS Britain's first transgender MP harassed his ex-wife by sending her unwanted text messages and voicemails as he transitioned to become a woman, court hears
Britain's first transgender MP harassed his ex-wife by sending unwanted text messages and voicemails while going through the 'emotional, physical and medical' effects of transitioning, a court heard today.
Former Conservative MP Katie Wallis, 40, appeared in the dock dressed in a white blouse, pale blue cardigan, grey trousers, black patent leather shoes and silver hoop earrings.
She told the court her legal name was Jamie Wallis but now goes by the name of Katie.
The father-of-two is accused of harassing ex-wife Rebecca after she told the former MP she had met someone else. Wallis denies the charge.
Former Bridgend MP Wallis was reaching out to her ex-wife while going through the 'emotional, physical and medical' effects of changing gender, Cardiff Magistrates Court heard.
Prosecutor Simone Walsh said: 'The defendant and victim were in a relationship for 15 years and share two children together.
'They separated in 2020 and their divorce was finalised in 2024.
'Following the victim informing the defendant of a new relationship, the defendant's behaviour became harassing in nature.
'The frequency, nature and contents of the messages and voicemails amounted to harassment of the victim.
'Despite being arrested on February 28 and released on bail, the defendant has continued to send messages to his victim.'
The court heard Wallis sent text messages and left voicemails to her ex-wife between February 14 and March 21 this year.
A screen was put up in court to avoid Mrs Wallis coming face-to-face with her ex-husband, the Tory MP for Bridgend between 2019 and 2024.
Narita Bahra KC, defending, said the evidence against Wallis did not amount to harassment and that her mental health had 'spiralled' at the time of the allegations.
She said: 'The complainant has chosen what messages to provide to police and she hasn't provided the full exchange with Dr Wallis.
'Dr Wallis was going through a very important stage of her transition process which was to come out full-time.
'The complainant took issue with that. She did not want Dr Wallis to come out full-time as transgender.
'This involved announcing himself as a woman to the world and dressing as a woman full-time.
'She was so unwell and was not in a position where she had support from others - she was reaching out to her.'
The prosecution offered no evidence on a charge of stalking.
District Judge Rhys Williams adjourned the hearing before Mrs Wallis gave her evidence because there was enough time to complete the hearing.
He ordered a new psychiatric report to be carried out on Wallis and adjourned the trial until June 17.
As Jamie Wallis, he was elected to the Commons in 2019, becoming the first Tory to win the South Wales seat of Bridgend since the 1980s.
Wallis became the first MP in the UK to come out as transgender three years later.
The announcement came after he crashed his Mercedes while wearing high heels and a black leather PVC mini-skirt before leaving the scene and being arrested in bed six hours later.
In March 2022, Wallis revealed he had been diagnosed with gender dysphoria having 'felt this way since I was a very young child' and that he wanted to transition to be a woman.
Wallis also said he had been raped and blackmailed, and was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
In response, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised Wallis's bravery, and politicians from across the political spectrum publicly expressed their support.
In July 2022 Wallis was banned from the road for six months and fined £2,500 after crashing his Mercedes.
The MP was found guilty of failing to stop, failing to report the collision, and leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position after hitting a lamppost in Llanblethian, South Wales.
But he was cleared of driving without due care and attention following a trial at Cardiff Magistrates' Court.
Wallis – who arrived at court on that occasion wearing a dark suit, white shirt and tie - said the crash was caused by swerving to avoid a cat on the road.
'His eyelids were dark, his lips were red and his cheeks were bronzed, and he had red nail polish on his toes.'
After being arrested, Wallis told police he had left the scene due to a 'PTSD attack' which left him feeling 'vulnerable' and 'as if I was going to be attacked again'.
Wallis said he had been having 'nightmares and flashbacks' due to allegedly being raped two months earlier.
The court heard Wallis 'fully intended' to report the incident to police as soon as he was able but had not done so by the time of the arrest due to his 'state of shock.'
But convicting Wallis of failing to stop, failing to report the collision, and leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position, District Judge Tan Ikram said: 'I didn't find the defendant credible in the evidence he gave.'
He claimed to have left the scene of the crash out of fear of being 'raped, killed or kidnapped' due to post-traumatic stress disorder which he developed after being raped two months earlier.
A local resident alerted by the noise of the crash in November 2021 told police that the Mercedes was being driven by 'a white male wearing a white long-sleeve top which was tight to the body, a black leather PVC mini-skirt, tights, dark shoes with a high heel and a pearl necklace'.
Wallis was picked up by his father Daryl in a Land Rover Discovery, with police attending the 'absolutely colossal' family home and forcing entry out of concern for the MP.
Pc Louis Hall found Wallis asleep, he told the trial.
'He appeared to be wearing make-up,' he said.
Accusing the MP of 'fitting his own behaviour around the behaviour of PTSD', the judge said Wallis had simply made 'bad decisions'.
In his statement in March 2022, Wallis said: 'I'm trans. Or to be more accurate, I want to be.
'I've been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and I've felt this way since I was a very young child.
'I had no intention of ever sharing this with you.
'I always imagined I would leave politics well before I ever said this out loud.
'I was reminded of the incredible support those you work with can provide.
'Also, I was reminded how important it is to be yourself.
'I have never lived my truth and I'm not sure how. Perhaps it starts with telling everyone.
'There was a close call in April 2020 when someone blackmailed me, outed me to my father and sent photographs to other family members.
'He wanted £50,000 to keep it quiet.'
Wallis subsequently told Sky News that the transition process would be 'challenging and difficult' with 'lots of hurdles', saying: 'It's not going to be done overnight, it's going to take many, many years.'
But he added: 'I think now that I am out and people do know, I'm free to start that and actually go on that journey at a pace that I find comfortable.'
Wallis, who at the time said he still preferred the pronouns 'he' and 'him', revealed he had felt uncomfortable with a male identity for a 'very long time'.
'About a year ago, maybe about six or eight months ago, I woke up one day and I realised actually I am no longer ashamed of this,' he told Sophy Ridge.
'This is who I am, this is what I want and actually I have waited a long time to feel that way.'
Born in Bettws, a former mining village in Bridgend, Wallis attended a Catholic school before going on to read chemistry at Christ Church, Oxford.
He was awarded a doctorate in astrobiology in 2014, having written a paper on evidence of panspermia – the theory that life exists throughout the universe and is distributed by objects such as asteroids and comets.
He was a director of a data recovery firm before entering politics – but faced criticism after reports that a group of companies linked to him had been subject to more than 800 complaints to trading standards.
At the time, Wallis disputed the figures.
Wallis also faced calls for the Conservative Party to kick him out over a 'sugar daddy' website branded 'exploitative and demeaning' by a Labour MP after it emerged the page was owned and operated by a firm whose sole shareholder was a company where they were a director.
He did not stand for re-election last year, putting the decision down to boundary changes – and insisting it 'isn't a case of being chased out locally'.
Admitting Rishi Sunak's decision to call a July general election had been a surprise, Wallis told the BBC he would be sad to leave Parliament.
'You fall in love with this job, you'll always want another week,' he said.
Wallis said he was 'actively seeking a seat elsewhere' but 'doing so with a sense of humour and a philosophical view'.
'I have never lived my truth - perhaps it starts with telling everyone' - then Tory MP Jamie Wallis's March 2022 statement
Yesterday the parliamentary party had a photo in the chamber and then we went for dinner together. It was nice, especially for those of us in the '2019 intake' of MPs who haven't done anything like that before.
It was lovely to speak to colleagues away from Parliament, and I appreciated the occasion for a number of reasons.
I've had a lot of support from the Whips since I was elected. Not for the reasons you might think, but there's a lot that goes on in MPs lives and the Whips play an important wellbeing role – as far as I've seen they try their best to support and help MPs who are having a tough time. Well they've certainly earned their keep with me.
I'm trans. Or to be more accurate, I want to be. I've been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and I've felt this way since I was a very young child. I had no intention of ever sharing this with you. I always imagined I would leave politics well before I ever said this out loud.
There was a close call in April 2020 when someone Blackmailed me, outed me to my father and sent photographs to other family members. He wanted £50,000 to keep quiet. The police were so supportive, so understanding and on this occasion the system worked. He pled guilty and was sentenced to 2yrs and 9mnths in prison.
For a while it seemed as though I would be able to get on with things and move on. Being an MP and hiding something like this was always going to be tough, but I arrogantly assumed I was up for it.
Well, I'm not.
A few months back, in September, I 'hooked up' with someone who I met online and when I chose to say 'no' on the basis that he wouldn't wear a condom he chose to rape me. I have not been myself since this incident and I don't think I will ever recover. It is not something you ever forget, and it is not something you ever move on from.
Since then things have really taken a tumble. I am not ok.
When I crashed my car on the 28th November I fled the scene. I did so because I was terrified. I have PTSD and I honestly have no idea what I was doing except I was overcome by an overwhelming sense of fear. I am sorry that it appears I 'ran away' but this isn't how it happened in the moment.
Tonight, I was reminded of the incredible support those you work with can provide. Also, I was reminded how important it is to be yourself. I have never lived my truth and I'm not sure how. Perhaps it starts with telling everyone.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
29 minutes ago
- Times
Fact check: how accurate are Rachel Reeves's spending figures?
'The chancellor's speech was full of numbers, few of them useful,' said Paul Johnson, the head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Reeves's speech was political to the core — and that extended to her use of statistics. The chancellor appears to have used whichever numbers best suited her position, predominantly to inflate the scale of the government's spending plans. She used bigger, cumulative figures to highlight the scale of investments, rather than annual numbers, and cash increases stripped of their context. She also used Tory spending plans from before the election, which never came to pass, as the baseline for the biggest numbers in her speech. When it did not suit her she ignored the Tory spending plans. While none of the figures are technically inaccurate, economists argue that they are a statistical sleight of hand and that Reeves would be better off being consistent in her use of numbers. Spending going up The claim: The first number in Reeves's speech — bar her obligatory reference to the £22 billion 'black hole' she claims to have been left by the Tories — was the boast that 'in this spending review, total departmental budgets will grow by 2.3 per cent per year in real terms'. The reality: This figure includes spending announced at the budget last year, where there were some of the biggest increases. Over the next three years, total spending — combining day-to-day and investment — will increase by 1.5 per cent. Day-to-day spending will rise by 1.2 per cent a year for the rest of the parliament, about half the rate it rose this year. • More for public services The claim: Reeves promised to add '£190 billion more to the day-to-day running of our public services' as well as an extra £113 billion to public investment. The reality: This is a comparison with previous Conservative plans — dismissed as 'essentially fictitious' by Johnson — drawn up before the election to set a trap for Labour and allow Rishi Sunak to promise tax cuts. The Tory plans envisioned day-to-day spending rising by only about 1 per cent a year, and big cuts in capital spending. Reeves reversed these by changing her fiscal rules to allow more borrowing and is increasing infrastructure spending. But on an annual basis, capital spending will be £151.9 billion in 2029-30, £20.6 billion more in cash terms than it is now. Day-to-day spending will rise by £50.7 billion by 2028-29. More for schools The claim: Reeves said she was providing a 'cash uplift' of more than £4.5 billion for schools by the end of the spending review period. The reality: Context is everything. The Treasury concedes in the small print that the core budget for schools will rise by 0.4 per cent over the next three years. It says that when the cost of expanding free school meals is stripped out of the figures 'you get a real-terms freeze in the budget'. • Rachel Reeves is testing voters' patience … she needs results Backing innovation The claim: Reeves declared that the government was 'backing [Britain's] innovators, researchers and entrepreneurs' with research and development funding rising to a 'record high of £22 billion per year by the end of the spending review'. In a press release the government said that spending on research and development was £86 billion. The reality: Despite the rhetoric, this spending pledge represents a significant scaling back of the government's investment ambitions in research and development. The previous government pledged to hit the £22 billion target by this year and then delayed it until 2027. This target has now been put back even further to 2029. Indeed, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's budget will barely rise at all next year — far from the rhetoric of Reeves's statement. The £86 billion referred to in government press releases is a cumulative figure. More for social housing The claim: Reeves boasted of 'the biggest cash injection into social and affordable housing in 50 years', saying this would total £39 billion over ten years. The reality: The figure would represent almost a doubling of the £2.3 billion affordable homes programme. However, this spending ramps up slowly, reaching just £4 billion a year by the end of the parliament, leaving it to future chancellors to find ways of maintaining the spending. The overall capital budget for the housing ministry is actually flat over the spending review, with ministers relying on savings elsewhere — especially a reduction in the capital costs to councils of homes for asylum seekers. If these savings fail to materialise, painful decisions will be needed. NHS spending The claim: With health the big winner, Reeves boasted of 'an extra £29 billion per year for the day-to-day running of the health service' along with a 50 per cent boost in the NHS technology budget. The reality: The £29 billion figure is for NHS England specifically, and its budget will rise by 3 per cent a year in real terms, within a 2.8 per cent per year overall Department of Health rise. Capital budgets were increased last year but will be held flat for the rest of this parliament. Increasing technology spending further will therefore come at the cost of crumbling buildings or modern scanners and other kit. NHS leaders are already saying they will find it harder to shift to more modern, efficient treatments without extra equipment and buildings. Efficiency savings The claim: Reeves said the government had carried out a zero-based review of all government spending that would make public services 'more efficient and more productive' and, according to the Treasury, save £13 billion a year by 2029. The reality: These savings are, to put it charitably, extremely hypothetical and in some cases seem wildly optimistic. The NHS, the government thinks, will save nearly £9 billion from higher productivity — despite the fact that the health service has got less rather than more productive since Covid. And the culture department thinks it will save £9 million from 'digital reform' — despite the fact that the MoD, which is a much larger organisation, only thinks it can save £11 million. Overall the savings appear, at best, to be highly aspirational. But if they are not met, it will have a real-world impact on the amount of money the government has for public services.
Telegraph
30 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Planet Normal: ‘The numbers don't add up' in Rachel Reeves' spending review
Mr Lyons wasn't convinced by the numbers, ' Early in her speech the Chancellor said, is the plan credible, and the answer unfortunately is, no.' 'T he starting position is debt is very high, and I think we're in the early stages of Britain going into a debt crisis. If you're looking for good news, it might be that we're not the only country facing this problem; but today the Chancellor gave a speech that I think lacked a lot of the detail.' Allison is not convinced by the claims the economy is stabilising, ' We know it is not true, and we are already starting to see the impact on employment and on businesses. We know payrolls have fallen, that employment's fallen by over 250,000 since Rachel Reeves' budget. This is not an economy where you should be taking the gambles that she's taking. Where is the growth going to come from?'
Telegraph
30 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Reeves has folded like the Tin Foil Chancellor she is
Rachel Reeves confirmed on Wednesday that she is a ' spend today, tax tomorrow ' Chancellor. Her spending spree on the country's credit card has set us on a collision course with the autumn when more tax rises will hit working families' pockets hard. After a year of chaos, how can anyone take this Government seriously? Rather than using the spending review as an opportunity to deliver secure public finances, the Chancellor is instead lurching from one disaster to the next. The cruel cuts to winter fuel payments, the £30 billion Chagos Islands surrender and the billions in no-strings-attached union handouts are all chickens that have come home to roost. When the pressure is on, the self-styled 'Iron Chancellor' folds like the 'Tin Foil Chancellor' she really is. She promised to get borrowing down, but the deficit is up by 70 per cent on her watch. She pledged no new taxes rises, yet more are on their way. She pledged not to change pensioner benefits, then U-turned. Then U-turned again. The only consistent thing about her is her inconsistency. Her own MPs, Cabinet ministers and Labour's trade union paymasters smell weakness. They know she's vulnerable and they will demand more money – and get it if they shout loud enough. The Chancellor has boxed herself into a corner. We face an extra £200 billion of borrowing this Parliament compared with the last Conservative Budget, with £80 billion more in interest payments alone. We are almost a year in but no economic plan is forthcoming. Our country is exposed. We have no room left to respond to shocks in global markets. Interest rates and mortgages are staying higher for longer because of her choices, as the OBR has said. She trumpets the hundreds of billions in extra spending she has announced while on the other hand claiming to have fixed the public finances. It simply doesn't make sense. She claims there is 'still work to do to ensure the sums add up'. That's not stability, it's uncertainty – the very last thing markets want to hear. It is not just markets. Her abject failure means British families have seen inflation almost double, unemployment rise, growth stalling, debt interest soar and pensioners sacrificed. The country is worse off because of her choices. What of the winter fuel U-turn? Last summer, pensioners were left out in the cold to avoid 'a run on the pound', as Labour's Lucy Powell put it. Now they claim they can afford to reverse it because they have fixed the economy and the finances – but economists are saying both are in a worse state since Labour came to office. Nothing's changed except the Government's credibility, which is vanishing. Rock bottom confidence There was nothing in her review restore rock bottom business confidence. Payrolls fell by over 100,000 last month alone. Unemployment is up 10 per cent since Labour took office. Only businesses create growth and jobs. But our Chancellor has not yet learnt that basic lesson of economics, her fingers planted firmly in her ears whilst the alarm bells are ringing. Similarly, the first and most important duty of any Prime Minister is keeping the country safe. But even as the world is becoming more dangerous and a new axis of evils draws their battle lines, there was no further progress towards spending 3 per cent of GDP on defence, which Labour claim to be committed to. They stood firm on the Chagos surrender, which is paying for tax cuts for Mauritians while we suffer, costing our country £30 billion to lease back our own land. There is no urgency on the issues of the day. The Home Office budget too has been significantly hit by asylum costs, while illegal crossings soar. Rather than point the finger at everyone else, the Chancellor should take responsibility and fix the problems she has created. Instead, the socialist's lazy embrace of high spending, more borrowing and higher taxes beckons – leaving our public finances dangerously vulnerable. If we were in charge, we would take a different approach. We wouldn't kill growth with tax rises and red tape. We'd restore confidence, focus on efficiency and productivity, and reform welfare to get people off benefits and into work. At the end of the day, it's working people and businesses who will pay – with higher taxes, higher costs, and fewer opportunities. This Spending Review is unaffordable, and so is this Chancellor.
