A transgender woman who headbutted a bar manager will remain behind bars, but a judge has said prison officials should reconsider where she serves her sentence.
Tara Hudson, 26, has lived as a woman all her adult life and has undergone six years of gender reconstruction surgery. She is still legally a man.
The makeup artist was handed a 12-week jail term by magistrates after a Boxing Day assault, which led to her being sent to an all-male prison.
She launched an appeal against her sentence, which was heard before Bristol crown court on Friday. A panel of three judges, led by Recorder Llewellyn Sellick, dismissed her appeal after ruling she had a “worrying criminal record”.
A visibly startled Hudson sat in the dock in a prison-issue grey tracksuit, while her barrister, Nicholas Wragg, said his client, who suffers from mental health issues, had suffered a torrid time at HMP Horfield in Bristol.
The court heard that Hudson had been separated from other inmates and locked in a cell 23 hours a day. Wragg said: “The clang of a prison door should never be pleasant. It should have a sobering effect on a person. But Ms Hudson has had an awful time – she has found it unrelenting and frightening.
“As she left prison today to come to court, where she was placed in a female cell, she found herself taunted by other inmates shouting: ‘Tara Tara, show us your tits’.”
Hudson, who has eight previous convictions including offences for battery, had initially denied any wrongdoing and claimed self-defence. However, on the day of her trial she changed her plea.
The court heard a drunk Hudson had headbutted the bar’s manager, Christopher Dyer, after she was refused any more alcohol. He needed dental surgery costing £1,500 as a result of the attack.
A petition calling for Hudson to be transferred to an all-female prison attracted more than 125,000 signatures before the hearing on Friday.
About 30 demonstrators gathered outside the court and waved placards with slogans such as “trans lives matter” and “#iseetara”.
Hudson’s mother said she was bitterly disappointed by the decision and called on the prison service to transfer her daughter to a female jail immediately. “Her life in Bristol prison has been utter hell and she is constantly being harassed,” Jackie Brooklyn said.
- This article was amended on 30 October 2015 to remove a reference to Hudson’s birth name, which was irrelevant to the case.
