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
Daily Mail
6 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Women will no longer be prosecuted for aborting own child at any stage of pregnancy under changes to the law set to be passed next week
Women will no longer face prosecution for aborting their own baby under changes set to be passed by MPs next week that would herald the biggest overhaul of abortion law for half a century. Under the proposals abortion would effectively be decriminalised and women would no longer face prosecution if they ended their own pregnancy after 24 weeks or without approval from doctors. The changes are said to have the backing of more than 130 backbench MPs meaning it is likely to be approved when MPs are given a free vote on amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill next week. Six women have appeared in court in the last three years charged with ending or attempting to end their own pregnancy outside abortion law - a crime with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Last month Nicola Packer, 45, was acquitted of taking abortion medicine at home when she was about 26 weeks pregnant. Under the new proposals she would not have been prosecuted for this. The MPs behind the proposed amendments say that reform is long-overdue as the current law leads to vulnerable women being prosecuted, some of whom may have had a miscarriage or stillbirth. However anti-abortion campaigners have criticised the proposals, which they warn would be the most extreme liberalisation of the law since the 1967 Abortion Act and could allow abortion 'up to birth'. Abortion is a criminal offence in England and Wales unless it takes place under strict conditions, including that it is before 24 weeks into a pregnancy and with the approval of two doctors. New laws passed during the pandemic allow abortion pills to be taken at home in a system known as 'pills by post', however this is only allowed up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy. There are very limited circumstances allowing a woman to access an abortion after 24 weeks, such as when the mother's life is at risk or the child would be born with a severe disability. But two amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill would radically alter abortion law in England and Wales. One of the amendments, by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, would mean that a woman would no longer be committing an offence by ending her own pregnancy. However under this amendment anybody else, including a medical professional, who assisted a woman in accessing an abortion outside the law could still be prosecuted. Ms Antoniazzi has described it as a 'small change to the law but one that will have a huge impact on the lives of women', adding that it would protect women from prosecution while retaining the criminal law against abusive partners who end a woman's pregnancy without her consent. A second, rival amendment, put forward by Labour MP Stella Creasy, goes further still and would repeal swathes of legislation and make it a human right for a woman to have access to an abortion. The decision to select one or both amendments for a vote, expected on June 17 and 18, lies with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle. However it is expected that Ms Antoniazzi's amendment would receive the backing of MPs after a leading pro-choice group yesterday came out against Ms Creasy's plan, warning it is being rushed through without enough scrutiny. Rachael Clarke, head of advocacy at the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), said Ms Creasy's amendment does not have the backing of abortion providers whereas Ms Antoniazzi's is supported by more than 50 pro-choice organisations. 'Abortion law is incredibly complex. It governs 250,000 women's healthcare every single year,' she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'Because of that, it is essential that any huge change to abortion law is properly considered. 'That means involvement with providers, medical bodies, regulators - and proper debate time in Parliament.' 'For us, unfortunately, although we truly believe that we need overwhelming and generational change for abortion law, Stella Creasy's amendment is not the right way to do it,' she added.
The Independent
10 minutes ago
- The Independent
What would a Tory spending review look like? With Badenoch, nobody knows
It would be an exaggeration to claim the nation eagerly awaits the invention of 'Badenomics' but Conservatives are certainly impatient with Kemi Badenoch 's apparent inability to create a narrative on the economy, land blows on a weakened Labour government, or compete with Nigel Farage's Reform UK on a key electoral issue. This week's Labour announcements on winter fuel payments and the spending review offer some prime opportunities to 'punch through'. What is the problem? It's hardly confined to today's Conservatives; every political party that has been in power and badly loses an election finds it difficult to get a hearing. Policies the party are most closely identified with are the ones recently and decisively rejected by voters. How far should a heavily defeated team try to claim that they were right all along and that the electorate made the wrong decision? This might be termed the 'blame the voters' approach; while some buyer's remorse may have set in, it's rather futile to attack the electorate. Alternatively, a party can admit mistakes as a means of resetting voter appeal, but that means upsetting former colleagues and handing your enemies an easy win. What are the Conservatives doing about it? Making speeches, for now, rather than policy… and trying to plot a path to redemption. Last week, perhaps in response to internal concerns, shadow chancellor Mel Stride came as close as possible to apologising for the Liz Truss mini-Budget without actually saying 'sorry'. 'Contrition' is the preferred term. Truss has proved to be a potent political weapon, but for the Labour Party, scarcely a day goes by without Keir Starmer or Rachel Reeves making a scathing reference to that disaster. Stride was critical of it at the time, having left the government and as chair of the Treasury select committee; his apology-adjacent speech won't stop Labour deploying Agent Truss (and she keeps popping up, unhelpfully) but it might blunt the attacks somewhat. What are the Tories saying about the rest of their record? Still fairly proud of it. Badenoch says the Tories made 'a lot of good things happen', such as reforms to social security, plus 'near full employment' and raising school standards. 'But people remember the most recent period … and I think the most recent period was the most difficult,' she concedes. So it is Rishi Suank's fault for 'talking right, governing left' as she has put it. So Badenoch is sorry-not-sorry? The Tory mistakes she points to, such as on Brexit and net zero, actually come from the right, not the centre, and don't necessarily chime with public opinion. A passionate and now obdurate Eurosceptic, she seems to want more Brexit at a time when the voters have concluded it was a flop; as the years go on, she'll need to say if she would reverse Starmer's 'Brexit reset' that builds closer, easier relations with the EU. She will also be asked if she would scrap planning reforms that boost growth, stop skilled migration, bring back zero-hours contracts, reduce VAT on private school fees, and so on. She will also need to eat many of her own words as a minister on climate change and green growth, now she's a 'net zero sceptic'. She may hope to win back some Reform voters by tacking to the right, but she can never out-Farage Farage. Indeed, she's ridiculed him for promising economic fantasies, so how can she now embrace them and return to Boris Johnson-era cakeism? Where are the Tories with winter fuel payments for pensioners? They are demanding an apology from Labour. But Labour's present policy is identical to Badenoch's – restore the payment for all now, but try to means-test it later – so she is disarmed, and cannot even claim credit for forcing the U-turn, which was obviously down to Labour panic after local election losses. And what do the Tories say about the spending review? Badenoch's line is that there would not be a black hole in public finances if they'd won the last election, and taxes would be lower. The latter part is true, but equally a hypothetical Tory government would now be imposing an even more painful squeeze on social security and public services, to the point where the numbers would simply not be credible, leading to strikes. Voters sensed this unreality last July, and as time passes the Tories will have to come up with credible plans of their own rather than relying on Jeremy Hunt's pre-election claims. Anything else? Plenty. Stride may be doing his best, but Badenoch seems more interested in 'culture wars' than macroeconomics, which is a problem. Her shadow frontbench team is surprisingly lacking in talent and Labour ministers, despite their relative inexperience, mostly run rings around their opponents. Can the Conservatives forge the 'Right Approach' again? In truth, the Tories are on a long march back to the centre and sooner or later will have to accept climate change and exorcise the ghosts of Truss and Johnson. They need to show themselves trustworthy and realistic, and willing to compromise with their lost voters. These are the kinds of radical, symbolic 'unthinkable' things Tony Blair had to do to make Labour electable in the 1990s, and Starmer did afresh in recent years. Only then will voters lend their ears. Badenoch isn't the leader for that task.
Telegraph
12 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The SNP's blockade of nuclear power in Scotland is out of date
In a last throw of the dice, the SNP tried to undercut the UK Government's plan for a nuclear energy future by insisting that they would concentrate on wind and solar power to keep the lights on in Scotland ... without nuclear power. It was all a bit pathetic. Even before Ed Milliband, the Energy Secretary, had finished his oration on the UK's welcome new energy policy, the 'flat earthers' in the SNP and Greens were out in force denouncing what they claim were the dangers of nuclear power. And what was most pathetic was the fact that renewable power will probably always play a part in Britain's energy needs – after all, Mr Milliband is a fan – alongside a new £14-billion nuclear programme. But with an SNP Government, only renewables will count; no nuclear allowed is to be their policy. What's wrong with both, asks the man and woman in the street? The answer is simple: John Swinney's 'die in a ditch' dislike of nuclear power may be legendary but it is also outdated at a time when the Russian invasion of Ukraine has threatened the world's oil and gas supplies. And the recent power shutdown in Spain, which also affected Portugal and parts of France, has raised serious questions about renewables such as wind and solar power. In spite of this, the First Minister has often declared that he 'never had and never will' support investment in nuclear power plants. This puts him in direct opposition to the UK's energy plan, and also without a cogent policy for how he would keep Scotland's lights on. His view, however, is not just opposed by Labour and Conservatives, but even by SNP supporters. A recent opinion survey suggested that a majority now believe that their party's stance is, at the very least, 'unrealistic'. It has always looked hypocritical for Scotland to benefit from nuclear power when its SNP Government continued to oppose it, and the rest of the UK shouldered the burden, But this attitude now looks perverse. UK energy policy the preserve of Westminster, but the Scottish Government retains power over planning – SNP ministers have used planning controls to block the construction of any new nuclear plants in Scotland. They did this despite one of Scotland's two ageing nuclear power stations, the Hunterston B plant in North Ayrshire, shutting down in January 2022. And Torness, which still accounts for around 15 per cent of Scotland's electricity generation, is due to close in 2030. Ian Murray, Labour's Scottish Secretary, posted on X: 'The SNP block on new nuclear is costing Scotland jobs and investment.' Michael Shanks, the energy minister and twice recent victor over SNP candidates in Rutherglen, echoed Mr Murray's pledge that an incoming Labour Scottish Government next May would abolish the SNP's opposition to nuclear. First of all, however, Labour must win that election to the Holyrood Parliament. Around 20,000 Scottish jobs were already dependent on the nuclear power industry and 150 Scottish firms were working on the Hinkley Point C plant. Mr Shanks added that many more jobs would be in the pipeline for Scotland with a Scottish Government that 'unashamedly backs nuclear power'. The energy situation is bound to play a massive part in next year's Scottish Parliament election. How strange that Labour will be saying that both renewables and nuclear will play a part in keeping the lights on, while the SNP will insist that only half of that equation is enough.
