Trans woman called ‘she' in sex offence court hearing

Telegraph

20-03-2025

A transgender woman who committed sex offences in male public lavatories was called 'she' in court.
Chleo Sunter, 37, secretly recorded and photographed men in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire.
The sex offender, formerly known as John Graham, was described as a woman in court despite the offences only occurring in men's lavatories.
The Government has refused to force police to record biological sex instead of criminals' self-declared gender. It has left criminals free to pick the gender of their choosing despite an independent review urging Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, to order police to collect data on biological sex instead.
The Telegraph revealed that police forces and courts were routinely allowing criminals to self-identify their gender, with transgender rapists among those recorded as female.
Sunter, a serial sex offender, was sentenced to 26 months in prison at Teesside Crown Court on Wednesday after admitting voyeurism.
The court heard that Sunter took more than 800 photographs and videos of men as they used toilet cubicles and urinals.
It was not told whether Sunter had been allowed to self-identity as a woman or had legally changed sex using a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC).
'Some were recorded under the cubicles'
Sunter captured the photographs and video footage between January and November 2023, later being found to be in possession of 790 images and 15 videos. They were taken at an Aldi supermarket and the Captain Cook Square shopping centre in Middlesbrough, and also at Darlington's railway station.
Before changing gender, Sunter was previously convicted of sexual assault in 2012, possession of extreme pornography in 2014 and breaching a sex offender order by using Match.com under an alias in 2018.
In a previous appearance at Teesside magistrates' court, Sunter was described as having Asperger's, autism and a low IQ.
Sunter's latest offending was uncovered by a sexual harm prevention order manager who was assessing whether a previously issued order was being obeyed.
Paul Newcombe, prosecuting, said: 'Some of the males were stood at the urinals. Some were recorded under the cubicles.'
Sunter was later found by police in November 2023 to have deleted 695 chats, 712 photos and four videos from the LGBT dating app Grindr.
Sunter had also breached the sex offender order by using a phone in incognito mode and resetting it to factory settings.
'Exceptionally challenging imprisonment'
John Nixon, for Sunter, said the defendant 'no longer has a phone or laptop with internet access' and had spent eight months in prison on remand.
Mr Nixon described the period of imprisonment as 'exceptionally challenging' for Sunter. But Judge Geoffrey Marson said Sunter's circumstances had 'little or no effect on the offences' as he handed down a 26-month sentence.
Sunter had pleaded guilty to two counts of voyeurism and six breaches of the sexual harm prevention order.
Statistics show that almost two-thirds of transgender prisoners who identify as female are convicted sex offenders.
Out of the 245 trans women inmates, who are legally recognised as male 151, or 62 per cent, had committed at least one sexual offence.
Official figures showed that the number of prisoners who identify as transgender but do not have a GRC rose by almost 10 per cent to 295 in 2024.
New rules mean that trans prisoners who identify as women but have male genitalia or those convicted of violent sexual offences cannot be held in female jails unless there are exceptional circumstances.