Met Police training officer ‘called women a bunch of lesbians' over transgender views

Telegraph

11-03-2025

A Met Police training officer called anti-transgender women a 'bunch of lesbians', a tribunal has heard.
Sgt Karl Eccott, an LGBT+ training officer, allegedly made the comments in a session with then-trainee Melanie Newman, who is now bringing harassment and direct discrimination claims against the Met.
Ms Newman claimed in her witness statement to the tribunal, held in Croydon, south London, that the Met Police had a 'hostile environment' for anyone with gender critical opinions.
The former journalist added she was suing because she had 'no other choice'.
Ms Newman is a detective constable in the Met, based in the child abuse investigation team at the custody centre in Croydon, the tribunal heard.
She listed several 'symptoms' of what she called an anti-gender critical narrative at the Met, including the invitation of trans activists to speak who she said were 'extremely hostile' to gender critical people.
Eva Echo, a transgender activist, told a 2023 Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) seminar that trans people needed to be 'saved' from gender critical people, who had 'warped, twisted views', Ms Newman claimed.
She added: 'I saw it not as an isolated offensive incident but as a reflection of institutional discrimination against gender critical people.'
Ms Newman – who describes herself as gender critical, having a belief in only two sexes – claimed speakers at the event delivered a one-sided 'invective' and she 'couldn't believe' what she was hearing.
She added: 'The impression I had was of someone who deeply loathed [gender critical] women. I did not perceive Echo as a woman but as an angry man.'
She later complained internally but was told no further action would be taken because the transgender activist was not an employee.
Later, screenshots of the ticket page for the event were posted on Twitter, now X, provoking 'mainly critical' reactions.
Many comments complained of a lack of policing at a recent event organised by gender critical activist Posie Parker, founder of Let Women Speak.
Ms Newman added that at one point, the audience at New Scotland Yard 'hissed' when Miss Parker's name was mentioned.
She claimed one of the planned speakers at the TDOV event, trans woman and Kent Police hate crime adviser Shea Coffey, had previously reposted a video of Miss Parker being assaulted at an event in New Zealand the day before, with a caption saying it was 'hilarious'.
Ms Newman said she did not challenge New Scotland Yard's TDOV event at the time because senior officers had 'effectively endorsed' it.
On why she is now suing the Met, she added: 'I feel only a public ruling that TDOV was discriminatory and an act of harassment in the context of all these facts will persuade the MPS that its reaction to my complaint to this date has been inadequate and that more decisive management action in support of [gender critical] staff is needed.'
Det Chief Insp Charlotte Cadden, who is a lesbian, agreed the event was 'discriminatory'.
She said: 'The homophobic terminology used by two of the speakers is classed as offensive by many gay people and felt specifically oppressive to me as a lesbian officer.'
Aileen McColgan KC, acting on behalf of the Met, told Ms Cadden the purpose of the TDOV event was to 'celebrate trans identity'. The five-day tribunal continues.