Woman sexually abused by her father discovers they will be released from jail identifying as a woman

A young woman who was sexually abused as a child by her father was appalled to discover the attacker is due to be released after barely seven years in jail.

And she was astonished to hear that her father was now identifying as a woman and using the name Claire Fox.

Ceri-Lee Galvin, 24, was abused for nine years from the age of eight by Clive Bundy. Bundy was jailed for 15 years in 2016 but is now due for parole.

She has bravely chosen to waive her anonymity as a sexual abuse victim to raise awareness of a ‘legal loophole’ that potentially allows sex attackers like her father to cover up their past by adopting a new gender identity.

Ceri-Lee remembers being stunned by the revelation two years ago about her abusive father – who she remembers as ‘ultra-masculine’.

Ceri-Lee Galvin, 24, was astonished to hear that her father Clive Bundy, who sexually abused her as a child, was now identifying as a woman and using the name Claire Fox

The victim liaison officer went on to tell Ceri-Lee that the only reason she was being informed about the name and gender change was because her father had given permission for this to happen.

The implication was that if her father had chosen not to tell her of the transition, she would have had no idea that Claire Fox was actually her abuser if the attacker had decided to contact her using the new name.

‘By being allowed to keep his change of identity a secret if he so wishes, my father Clive Bundy is being permitted to divorce himself and his name from the heinous crimes he committed against me,’ she says.

‘I was abused as a child by a man who now identifies as a woman and I only know because he allowed them to tell me. It’s just appalling that his right to privacy seems to over-rule any rights I have as a victim.’

Women’s rights activists have already raised concerns about the ease with which violent male criminals can self-identify as a woman – and recent cases have highlighted the issue.

A rapist who carried out sexual attacks as a man named Adam Graham in 2016 and 2019 sparked a heated debate earlier this year after changing gender and name to Isla Bryson while waiting to stand trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

And in 2018, convicted rapist ‘Karen White’ – branded a ‘highly manipulative’ predator by a judge – was moved to HMP New Hall in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and sexually assaulted two women inmates.

These violent offenders are easily able to change their names and gender on official papers such as a passport or driving licence.

Ceri-Lee Galvin, 24, was abused for nine years from the age of eight by Clive Bundy. Bundy was jailed for 15 years in 2016 but is now due for parole (Ceri-Lee Galvin with her father and siblings)

Ceri-Lee Galvin, 24, was abused for nine years from the age of eight by Clive Bundy. Bundy was jailed for 15 years in 2016 but is now due for parole (Ceri-Lee Galvin with her father and siblings)

Both documents can be submitted as proof of identity to the Disclosure and Barring Service, a part of the Home Office that carries out criminal record checks.

Campaigners argue that an offender could simply submit them with their amended details to the DBS without disclosing their previous name and birth sex, allowing them to hide the convictions linked to their original identity.

Ceri-Lee said of her ordeal: ‘I’m one of eight and for some reason he basically isolated and groomed me from a very young age.

‘From eight years old he sexually abused me for nine years.’

Jobless Bundy was arrested after police discovered images of Ceri-Lee online that the abuser had been trading with other paedophiles. Bundy was later charged with – and admitted – several counts of sexual activity with Ceri-Lee, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and distributing indecent images.

While the abuse finally stopped with the arrest, years of battling with crippling depression, PTSD and suicidal thoughts followed for Ceri-Lee.

But by 2021, at the age of 22, she was finally beginning to build a life. She had started her own family and was even planning to start a university course to become a paramedic.

Yet just as this remarkable turnaround was taking shape, her world came crashing down once again when she received the devastating call from her victim liaison officer in January of that year telling her of her father’s gender transition.

‘My initial reaction was to laugh. I’m not in any way transphobic but it was so unexpected.

Ceri-Lee is convinced that rather than being genuinely transgender her father is using this claim of having gender dysphoria in order to gain privileges and an early release

Ceri-Lee is convinced that rather than being genuinely transgender her father is using this claim of having gender dysphoria in order to gain privileges and an early release

‘She said your dad now identifies as “Claire Fox” and she has given us permission to tell you.

‘So if he hadn’t given permission, I still wouldn’t know he identifies as a woman and has changed his name by deed poll.’

As the VLO’s words sank in, Ceri-Lee realised that if she had not been told of the transition, her father could for instance have approached her young niece using the new name without her family realising.

‘If any of my family – including my niece – got a message from someone called Claire Fox online we wouldn’t have known it was him,’ she says.

A source from the Ministry of Justice said a victim liaison officer assesses whether disclosure of an offender’s name change or other information may be necessary for the protection of the victim.

He added that even if an offender fails to give permission, a probation officer can still make a decision to notify the victim of an identity change.

But Ceri-Lee maintains that she was told categorically on two separate occasions by her VLO that she had only been informed of the transition because her father had given consent for this information to be passed on, and was left enraged by the phone call. And she was highly sceptical about her father’s motivation for changing gender.

She says she was told by the VLO that her father had been given make-up and female clothing, all paid for by the prison service, as well as a segregated cell for protection from male prisoners.

Ceri-Lee is convinced that rather than being genuinely transgender her father is using this claim of having gender dysphoria in order to gain privileges and an early release. ‘He’s never shown any remorse, so what’s changed now?’

Ceri-Lee also finds her father’s choice of name sinister. She thinks it is no coincidence that her attacker has opted to use the name ‘Claire Fox’, the same name as a House of Lords peer who has attracted controversy over her views that transgender activism is endangering free speech and women’s rights.

Ceri-Lee has bravely chosen to waive her anonymity as a sexual abuse victim to raise awareness of a 'legal loophole' that potentially allows sex attackers like her father to cover up their past by adopting a new gender identity

Ceri-Lee has bravely chosen to waive her anonymity as a sexual abuse victim to raise awareness of a ‘legal loophole’ that potentially allows sex attackers like her father to cover up their past by adopting a new gender identity

‘To go from one name to a completely different name – hers of all people’s – is extremely coincidental,’ says Ceri-Lee.

Since receiving word that her father was eligible for parole and began identifying as a woman in 2021, Ceri-Lee says her life has been in a state of limbo.

Her father’s eligibility for release was initially delayed after an ‘altercation’ in prison. But after a long-awaited hearing earlier this month, parole was granted and Ceri-Lee only has until May 3 to challenge this.

During her father’s parole hearing, she read a victim statement explaining why the 61-year-old should remain behind bars.

Via a video link, she told the panel: ‘This September I will be going to university to study and become a paramedic – a dream career which enables me to help others.

‘This is something I am so passionate about, yet now I am nervous my past is coming back to haunt me. His early release will halt my future and cause me nothing but constant fear, constant worry and make me always watch over my shoulder.’

Regardless of the outcome, she is campaigning to ensure that other sexual abuse victims do not go through the same anguish she has suffered.

In the first instance, she would like to see guarantees in law that sex attack victims will automatically be allowed to know if a convicted abuser changes their gender identity in prison.

‘It feels like the prison service’s main priority is to safeguard my father’s right to decide who knows that he has changed gender,’ Ceri-Lee says.

‘He knows where I live, but I can’t even be told the area where he settles when he is released.

‘I had my rights violated for nine years by the very man who was supposed to protect me and yet now I’m supposed to respect his right to privacy because he says he is a woman. How does that make sense?’

More than this, Ceri-Lee feels it is wrong that violent criminals should be allowed to ‘transition’ at the expense of taxpayers while in prison.

‘I realise this is a difficult subject because people have fought long and hard to get rights for LGBTQ people,’ she explains.

Ceri wrote to her local MP Lucy Allan to highlight her plight. Ms Allan responded by making a powerful plea in Parliament in March for a change in the law to prevent sex offenders like Bundy from severing the link with their offences by transitioning to become a woman.

The MP told the Daily Mail: ‘It is clearly wrong that serious sexual offenders can disguise their identity on their release by changing their name and their gender.

‘Clearly a serious sexual offender changing gender enables them to disguise their identity far more effectively than a name change. The legislation allows them to erase their previous identity and erase their crime.

‘This is not just a terrifying prospect for the victims of their crime, but it is a deep injustice.’

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