A double rapist, who had a £10,000 sex change operation behind bars, has been put in segregation at a women-only prison after making unwanted sexual advances on inmates.
Martin Ponting, 50, a father-of-three, became Jessica Winfield in jail after being sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995.
She was moved in March this year from male-only HMP Whitemoor, in Cambridgeshire, to HMP Bronzefield in Surrey – Europe’s largest female prison.
Now, it has emerged that she was segregated last week due to reports of her making inappropriate advances on her fellow inmates.
The rapist was moved from HMP Whitemoor, in Cambridgeshire, to HMP Bronzefield in Surrey
She was moved in March this year from male-only HMP Whitemoor, in Cambridgeshire, to HMP Bronzefield in Surrey (pictured) – Europe’s largest female prison
A source told The Sun: ‘It beggars belief why a convicted double rapist like Jessica is allowed to mix with females despite still have her penis intact.
‘Prison bosses were worried she would try it on with inmates and their fears have come true. Inmates were furious to be lumbered with a convicted rapist in the first place and they’re even more angry now.’
Discussing her sexuality in the prisoners’ newspaper, Inside Time, in 2007, Winfield claimed she was targeted in prison because of her sexuality.
She said: ‘I changed my name to that of a female to prove to the authorities and everyone concerned that I am very serious about my gender and that I do not feel right being a man.
‘I feel like a female trapped in a male body.’
But furious campaigners expressed their outrage at the decision.
Transgender prisoners were permitted to right to have gender surgery in 1999 when kidnapper John Pilley and five other inmates, including a murderer, launched a legal challenge to have surgery on the NHS.
Martin Ponting, 50, a father-of-three, became Jessica Winfield in HMP Whitemoor (pictured) after being sentenced to life imprisonment in 1995
Prisoners must pass rigorous psychological tests to demonstrate they genuinely want to change sex and are not just seeking special treatment
Pilley, who was sentenced to life in jail for the kidnapping of a taxi-driver, Linda Charlesworth, in 1981, became the first prisoner to undergo a sex change.
Then in 2009 a High Court ruling enabled transgender prisoners to transfer to different sex jails.
Prisoners must pass rigorous psychological tests to demonstrate they genuinely want to change sex and are not just seeking special treatment.