Transgender woman sent to male prison in Leeds is found dead

A transgender woman has been found dead in an all-male prison, after asking to be moved to a female facility.

The body of Vicky Thompson, 21, was found at Armley prison in Leeds, it emerged last night.

An investigation into Thompson’s death has been launched by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.

Ms Thompson, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, was handed a 12-month jail term in August which was suspended for 24 months.

After breaching the terms of her sentence, Thompson was remanded in custody at Bradford Crown court, according to the BBC. She had told friends she would kill herself if she was sent there.

It said the housing of transgender women in male prisons was an “abhorrent practice” that needed to come to an end.

Vicky was born male but had identified as female from her mid-teens.

But the rules also state that if a transgender person is “sufficiently advanced in their gender reassignment process” they could be placed “in the estate of their acquired gender, even if the law does not yet recognise they are of their acquired gender”. “We must reform the law urgently”, he tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Tory minster confirmed a review of current policy for trans prisoners was ongoing, drawing on the experience of transgender people, and that new guidance will soon be issued.

The urgent question was asked by shadow equalities minister Cat Smith, who warned that the issue of where transgender people are placed in prison will only grow.

Ms Thompson’s boyfriend, Robert Steele, said he had spoken to her a day before and had booked a visit to the prison before her death, according to the BBC. That means either the gender on their birth certificate, or the gender on their gender recognition certificate.

The news comes just weeks after a trans woman was moved into an all-female prison following an online petition that gained thousands of signatures.

West Yorkshire police told express.co.uk that Ms Thompson’s death has been classed as “not suspicious”.

She has had reconstructive surgery and lived as a woman all her adult life but is still legally a man.