Friday Round Up

It’s been a while since our last Friday round-up – here’s this week’s feminist legal news, plus a few highlights from the month.

In Scotland, Adnan Ahmed won his appeal against conviction. Ahmed was a “pick up artist” who made a career out of unsolicited approaches to young women, including two who were in school uniform at the time. Indicating a depressing lack of insight into the difference between “street harassment” and “a compliment,” the all-male appeal court held that “It does not seem to us that a polite conversational request or complement [sic] can be construed as threatening merely because it is uninvited or unwelcome.” They also had much to say about the Sheriff’s descent into the arena of cross-examination.

At Yew Trees hospital, which housed autistic women and / or women with learning disabilities, ten staff have been suspended after footage showing abuse was passed to the CQC. Police action appears to be pending.

Mirth among legal twitter from the judgment in Pile v Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, which was introduced in the first paragraph as looking at the “liberty of inebriated English subjects to be allowed to lie undisturbed overnight in their own vomit soaked clothing.” This seems to have been a slightly facetious introduction to a case which looked at the balancing of a detainee’s right to consent to the removal of clothing and the police’s obligations to ensure her safety and dignity including the necessity of a male officer to check on her while she was in her underwear. The conclusion was that the practical needs outweighed her concerns about consent, but that is not quite how it was introduced. The judgment, while circulated as an example of judicial humour, carries an unfortunate note of contempt for drunken women. As to merits, someone had plainly granted permission, so it wasn’t entirely unmeritorious. Legal Feminist wonders whether an equally insensible male claimant would have been the subject of quite so much elbow-jogging amusement.

In Leeds, it appears that the council have decided to extend the “managed zone” in which prostitution is legalised. This is on the strength of the review document, which concluded that while the system failed from 2014-2018, the claimed improvements of 2019 justified extension. It will be interesting to learn whether or not Leeds have complied with PSED in making this decision. 

Barrister Alexandra Wilson has received an apology from HMCTS after being mistaken for a defendant three times in one day. BAME barristers being asked if they are defendants or interpreters is sadly not uncommon, and we hope this apology leads to real change. 

In sex and gender news, a busy period recently: 

In the case of Taylor v Jaguar Land Rover, the Claimant, who identified as gender fluid / non-binary and wore women’s clothing to work, had applied to the Employment Tribunal as a result of a course of harassment over a period of time, including insults and abuse. S.7 Equality Act 2010 defines the protected characteristic of “gender reassignment” as follows:

A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.

The Claimant’s submission was that she was included within the protected characteristic of “gender reassignment” while Jaguar as the Defendant argued that gender-fluid or non-binary identities did not meet the relevant definition. Finding for the Claimant, the Tribunal awarded aggravated damages “because of the egregious way the claimant was treated and because of the insensitive stance taken by the respondent in defending these proceedings.”  Although this is a first-instance decision, and therefore not binding on any other court or tribunal, it demonstrates that the Employment Tribunal is willing to consider that the definition of gender reassignment should be broadly interpreted. Congratulations on a good win to Robin White of Old Square Chambers who was instructed for the Claimant.

Liz Truss MP announced this week that there would be no change to the substantive requirements to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate. Applicants will continue to produce evidence of gender dysphoria. However the process will be made less expensive and waiting times will be cut considerably with three new gender clinics opening.

At the same time, the NHS announced that there will be an independent review, led by Dr Hilary Cass OBE, into gender identity services for young people. This follows the cases brought by Keira Bell and by Sonia Appleby relating to concerns at GIDS. We note that the first ‘no win no fee’ adverts by solicitors to represent negligence claims brought by detransitioners are already being seen.

The Department for Education has also published guidance on teaching Relationships and Sexual Health (RSE) clarifying that “You should not reinforce harmful stereotypes, for instance by suggesting that children might be a different gender based on their personality and interests or the clothes they prefer to wear. Resources used in teaching about this topic must always be age-appropriate and evidence based. Materials which suggest that non-conformity to gender stereotypes should be seen as synonymous with having a different gender identity should not be used and you should not work with external agencies or organisations that produce such material.” It is shocking that in 2020 it was necessary to clarify that girls can like engineering and trousers, but welcome guidance nonetheless. 

Friday Round Up

A busy week in feminist legal news!

In welcome news, the CPS and police have scrapped “digital strip searches” of rape complainants, following a threat of legal action from two survivors and the Centre for Women’s Justice.

Shamima Begum has been successful in her judicial review. She challenged the decision to deprive her of citizenship and the decision to refuse leave to enter the UK. It is likely that this case will now be appealed to the Supreme Court.

Kiera Bell has published her crowdfunder on Crowdjustice to raise funds to bring a legal challenge to gender identity theory in NHS England’s Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy, arguing that in its present form it prevents clinicians from providing appropriate care.

Permission has been granted for judicial review brought by four “age verification” companies against the Government’s decision to drop the ‘porn block’ planned through age verification to access pornography. The companies, who expected to sell their age verification product, argue that the Government had the power to postpone Part 3 of the Digital Verification Act 2017 but not to drop it altogether. It is unclear whether AgeID, owned by giant Mindgeek which also owns PornHub, Redtube, Youporn, Gaytube and others, is one of the claimants.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has published its paper “Rethinking Remand For Women” arguing that women are too often inappropriately remanded.

On appeal from Scotland’s High Court of Judiciary, the Supreme Court has ruled against Mark Sutherland in a case about the legitimacy of evidence obtained through vigilante groups. Sutherland, convicted after exchanging explicit messages with a decoy he believed to be 13, brought the appeal on the basis that the use of such evidence interfered with his Article 8 rights.

The government has published the Commons Library Briefing on gender recognition and the rights of transgender people. Oddly, this was published, then vanished for a few hours, then returned with two missing sections: specifically, the section on legal gender recognition not being possible for minors and the section on provisions to support transgender children in schools. It may be that these were removed from an earlier draft in view of ongoing legal challenges.

The University of Huddersfield has published its review of the Leeds Holbeck “managed area” on prostitution. FiLiA and Nordic Model Now have reviewed the review.

Internationally, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in YT v Bulgaria that the Bulgarian government was not permitted to refuse a trans man any legal mechanism to change the legal sex on his documents. This ruling will bring Bulgaria into line with most of the rest of Europe.