The UK taxpayer will pay around £20,000 so a transgender murderer, accused of having sex with women in female prisons, can be flown hundreds of miles for a surgical sex change.
Paris Green was born Peter Laing but began “identifying” as a female in 2011, before being jailed for life in 2013 for killing and torturing Robert Shankland.
The victim was lured to a flat before being beaten so badly footprints were left on his neck, having a plastic bag forced over his head, and being sexually assaulted with a rolling pin.
Despite the nature of her crimes, and retaining male biology, the killer began her sentence of at least 18 years at Cornton Vale women’s jail in Stirling, Scotland, but was moved after reports she was having sex with female prisoners in a cell.
She will now have the sex change after being transported from her cell at HMP Edinburgh to a hospital in Southern England under constant guard, the Daily Record reports.
However, Mr. Shankland’s family reacted angrily, insisting she should not be getting the operation on the National Health Service (NHS) because “it’s not lifesaving treatment”.
From the women’s wing of the prison, Green wrote: “I am having the op, and pretty soon. The letter has went out [sic] to the surgeon asking him to take on my case.”
Mr. Shankland’s sister, Pauline Bell, 46, hit back. “She should not be getting the operation on the NHS. It’s not lifesaving treatment. She took somebody’s life away and destroyed a family,” she commented.
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “We cannot discuss individual cases but if a request is made by the NHS for surgery for one of the prisoners they are treating, we would not and could not stand in the way.”
A judge described the attack on Mr. Shankland as “utterly depraved” back in 2013.
Detective Chief Inspector David McLaren, of Police Scotland, added: “Robert Shankland was invited to a house which he thought was a safe place for him amongst people he had regarded as friends.
“McDonagh, Green, and Smith carried out a violent and sexual attack on Mr. Shankland and even after his death, they made efforts to try and distance themselves from their wicked actions.