Instagram/Terry BlackburnA transgender woman who lied to a man about being a biological female when she performed sex acts with him has been jailed for 21 months.
Ciara Watkin’s victim said he would not have consented to sexual activity if he had known she was biologically male, Durham Crown Court heard.
Watkin, 21 and from Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees, had claimed the man would have realised her status, but jurors found her guilty of sexual assault.
Recorder Peter Makepeace KC said he was “certain” the victim “fully believed from start to finish” that Watkin was a female due to her “lies and deception”.
Watkin, who was born male, had used the name Ciara since childhood but had not undergone any medical treatment or surgery, the earlier trial at Teesside Crown Court had heard.
Cleveland PoliceWatkin and the victim were both 18 when they met on Snapchat, where the defendant used a female cartoon character as a profile picture, before meeting in person and going on to have sexual contact, prosecutor Paul Reid said.
Watkin, who was referred to in court by female pronouns, told the man she was on her period to stop him touching her below the waist, the court heard.
When Watkin later revealed she was biologically male, the man filed a complaint with police.
He told officers that, had he known Watkin’s history, he would not have met her as he did “not swing that way”.
Prosecutors said the case revolved around the issue of informed consent.
In a statement read to the court, the man said he was “physically sick” when Watkin revealed what she called her “massive secret” to him.
He said he was “shocked and upset” about being “deceived”, adding he felt “ashamed and embarrassed” and had been “ridiculed online due to Watkin’s actions and deception”.
The victim said he was a “heterosexual male” who would never think about sexual activity with a man and felt he had part of his masculinity taken away.
‘Wanted to be loved’
In mitigation, Victoria Lamballe said Watkin’s offences were “not an act of predatory or sadistic behaviour” but were “driven by shame and a deep sense of discomfort within her own body rather than a malicious intent to deceive”.
Ms Lamballe said Watkin, who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, had identified as female since primary school and been “bullied and ridiculed on a daily basis for her presentation”.
It was “hardly surprising” therefore that Watkin had “built up a facade” and presented “almost as a caricature of herself which serves to mask the inner turmoil she feels at having been born into the wrong body”, Ms Lamballe said.
She said Watkin, whose parents were drug addicts who neglected her, was a person who “simply wanted to be seen as others as she sees herself” and “wanted to be loved as the person she perceives herself to be”.
But Recorder Makepeace said the victim was “totally deceived”, adding: “I am certain he fully believed throughout, from start to finish, you were of female gender and a birth female.”
The judge said Watkin told lies to “get away” with her deception and knew the man would not have consented to sexual activity had he known she was a “birth male” with male genitalia.
During the trial Watkin had appeared “flippant”, disinterested and bored and had shown “not a shred of remorse”, understanding or “common decency” towards the victim and had even sought to blame the man, Recorder Makepeace said.
The judge told Watkin the victim would have been “fully aware” of how reporting the assaults to police could expose him to “ignorant and thoughtless attack” by other people, but he did so to “ensure you didn’t get away with what you had done and in the sincere hope he could prevent it from happening to anyone else in the future”.
‘Deceive to achieve’
Recorder Makepeace said “certain newspapers” and people on social media had “gleefully poured scorn” on the man for being “fooled”.
But, the judge added, the photographs of Watkin that accompanied such posts had been “deliberately selected to ridicule the suggestion [the victim] had been fooled” and there were many other images which demonstrated how “convincing” Watkin’s female appearance could be.
The judge said Watkin posed a high risk of offending in the same way in the future and, while her gender dysphoria was a factor in her actions, at the “heart” of it was Watkin’s “frustration at wanting sexual experiences with heterosexual males” which “by definition” she needed to “deceive to achieve”.
The court heard Watkin would serve her sentence at a prison for men but measures would be in place to “minimise the risk” to her and “maximise the support”.
Watkin must also sign the sex offenders register for 10 years and a restraining order banning her from contacting the victim was made for life.
Speaking after the sentencing, Det Con Martin Scotson of Cleveland Police said Watkin “purposely concealed her sex in order for the sexual activity to take place”, adding: “Had the victim been aware that Ciara was biologically male, he would not have consented.
“I hope that now this case has been brought to a conclusion, the victim can now move forward with his life.
