February 2018

Transgender paedophile falsely accused a man of raping her in a male prison

A transgender paedophile from Cornwall has admitted she lied about being raped twice – including once by a fellow prisoner in her cell at a Devon Prison.

Truro Crown Court heard the 21-year-old pre-op transsexual made the false rape claims before she was sentenced for sexual offences against underage teenage boys.

Jasmine Hill, from Cornwall but of no fixed abode, appeared at court via video link, pleaded guilty to two charges of perverting the course of justice

The court heard how she was sentenced to four and half years in prison in February 2017.

Hill had admitted pretending to be a teenage girl on Facebook to target underage boys whom she groomed to send her explicit sexual images of themselves.

At that time, she pleaded guilty to inciting a child to perform sexual acts, breaching a sexual harm prevention order and possessing indecent images of a child.

Heather Hope, prosecuting, said the false allegations of rape happened before Hill was sent to prison last year. The first dated back to 2015 while the second was made in 2016, while she being held on remand at HMP Exeter ahead of her court case.

Ms Hope said Hill gave detailed descriptions to the police, including of how she was raped in her cell at the men’s prison.

She said both the victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were each arrested by police, questioned and intimately examined. Police then spent considerable time investigating each allegation.

In both cases, Ms Hope added, CCTV footage backed up their alibis and proved that neither men could have raped Hill.

Barry Hilliard, representing Hill, said she suffered from a personality disorder and admitted she had made up the allegations without thinking them through.

He added: “It wasn’t planned, in that initial investigations by the police showed how the stories unravelled.”

He said it was only recently that Hill, who has been in custody since 2016, was now being held in a special wing of a prison on the Isle of Wight with other transgender prisoners.

“Prison is a difficult environment when you are in a position where you are transgender pre-op,” he added.

Addressing Hill, Judge Simon Carr said: “I accept the very real challenges you faced in your childhood and the very serious challenges you have today, which for many would be met with sympathy.”

“However, you are extremely manipulative and will fabricate stories that are simply not true, in order to further your cause.”

He said it was found at the court case last year that Hill posed a substantial risk of significant harm to children, although he acknowledged the false rape allegations related to adults.

Judge Carr added: “Both of these offences are extremely serious and both require a period in custody of a considerable time.”

For each offence, Hill was sentenced to two years in prison to run consecutively, a total of four extra years.

Hill was sent back to prison to complete her current extended jail sentence, which had been imposed in February last year. When she is judged safe to be released by the prison authorities, she will then serve the extra four years in prison.

HMP Exeter is a men’s prison which deals with all remand cases from Cornwall and across the south west. Under the law, the 2004 Gender Recognition Act allows people to apply to have their gender recognised when they are in the criminal justice system.

Without such recognition however, a transgender person who identifies as a woman but is pre-op can still be held in a men-only prison.

In 2016 there were reported to be 70 transgender prisoners held in 33 prisons in England and Wales. Guidance for the Government says that holding transgender prisoners in ‘solitary confinement’ was not fair or appropriate.

February 2017

Woman, 20, jailed after pretending to be teen girl to get underage boys to send explicit photos to her

This woman pretended to be an attractive schoolgirl in order to entice young boys to send her indecent images of themselves.

She set up a fake Facebook account and groomed the underage boys to perform increasingly more explicit sexual acts.

The court heard Jasmine Hill, of no fixed address, targeted schoolboys on Facebook, Snapchat and WhatsApp.

As she was sent to prison by the court, it was said the 20-year-old posed a significant risk of serious harm to young boys.

Truro Crown Court heard that Hill already had convictions for similar offences.

The police discovered she had continued to target boys after seizing her phone while she was staying at a bail hostel in Camborne.

She appeared at court for sentence on Friday, having previously pleaded guilty to inciting a child to perform sexual acts, breaching a sexual harm prevention order and possessing indecent images of a child.

Prosecutor Jo Martin said Hill had been convicted in May 2015 of inciting a child to perform sexual acts.

As part of her sentence at that time, the court made an order preventing her from contacting any children on the internet.

In May 2016, police carried out a spot-check on her phone and Ms Martin said: “As a result of that, it was discovered her mobile phone had communications from a completely made up person having contact with a number of young men – something she was prohibited from doing.”

She said police traced one schoolboy who believed he had been exchanging pictures with a girl his own age.

Addressing Hill, Judge Simon Carr said: “You face a series of extremely worrying offences. You are still only 20 year old but in 2013 you were convicted as a juvenile of inciting a male child to sexual activity and voyeurism. On May 29, 2015, you came before this court for inciting a child to be involved in prostitution or pornography.”

He added: “Within a matter of months, you were committing almost identical offences. You were the object of a sexual harm prevention order so you set up a false Facebook account. You targeted, although not exclusively, an underage schoolboy. He thought he was communicating with someone who was completely different. You were clearly, from the beginning, manipulating and grooming him to perform actions he would never have normally done.”

Judge Carr said he had not hesitation in agreeing with the findings of a psychiatric report that Hill posed a significant risk of serious harm to young boys.

For inciting a child to perform sexual acts, Hill was sentenced to four and half years in a young offenders’ institute.

Her suspended sentence for the previous offences was activated for 18 months in prison, to run concurrently.

For the other offences, Hill was handed two six-month jail terms, also to run concurrently.

She was also given a new sexual prevention order not to be alone or to live with anyone under the age of 16 without the consent of their parents or social services, not to enter into conversations or create forums on social media with anyone under 16 and to have her phone and computer accessible to the police at any time.