In every Daily Mail reader's wet dream, Justine Hardwood was recently found to have 'faked' being transgender in order to be sent to Styal women's prison. In a bizarre twist, she has asked to be moved to a male prison, but denied the request.
"A few years ago," said Styal warder, Gail Sell, "the then Justin Hardwood was arrested on indecent exposure. He claimed at court he was a transgender person, and asked to be put into a women's prison. His request was denied."
The original request had been denied when it was discovered that Justin only owned one skirt, and he was wearing it.
"Six months after that offence," said Miss Sell, "he was released and immediately re-offended. This time he had more female clothing, but his request at being acknowledged as being transgender was once more declined, when all of his neighbours said he only ever wore male clothing."
Justin Hardwood turned out to be most persistent and stubborn. Further re-offending occurred, the third time he wore almost exclusively female clothing, but had never sought help, the fourth time he was registered at a gender identity clinic, and the fifth time she was on hormones and had changed her name officially to Justine.
"At the fifth arrest," said Gail, "her assertion she was transgender was acknowledged, and she was sent to Styal prison."
It turned out that Justine's long term plan had been to get into a women's prison in order to graduate from sex-pest to sex-offender. However, she had overlooked the massive muscle wastage, loss of libido and genital shrinkage that accompanies being on hormones.
"A lot of the women in our prison are quite, how shall I put it, hard," said Sell. "Justine is regularly in the infirmary having been beaten, sexually and psychologically abused by the other inmates. Justine's long term plan has kind of backfired. Which in my opinion is good."
Justine, for her part, now regrets attempting to fake being transgender. "It would have been far easier pretending to be a nun," she said from the hospital wing of Styal.
