Sussex Police in row over trans woman paedophile

Suella Braverman's scathing words came after the force criticised "hateful comments" directed at a trans woman who sexually abused children.

Sally Ann Dixon, 58, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for 30 counts of indecent assault or indecency with a child. The youngest of Dixon’s victims was just seven years old at the time.

The offences happened in the late 1980s and 1990s when Dixon was living as a man.

Sussex Police made an online statement after being criticised for referring to serial sex offender Dixon as female.

A police spokesman said: “Sussex Police do not tolerate any hateful comments towards their gender identity regardless of crimes committed.

“This is irrelevant to the crime that has been committed and investigated.”

But Ms Braverman said the force should "focus on catching criminals not policing pronouns".

A post by Sussex Police on Twitter (Image: Twitter)

Sussex Police’s Twitter account also pointed people to a web page about hate crime and added: “If you have gender critical views you wish to express, this can be done on other platforms or on your own page, not targeted at an individual.”

The message drew hundreds of furious posts criticising its stance.

Judge Mark Van Der Zwart, sitting at Lewes Crown Court in July, heard that Dixon did not have a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Psychologist Pam Spurr said: "Insane. The police are doing a terrible disservice to crime statistics actually being meaningful with this 'parallel universe' approach to allocating sexual assault crimes (and any crime) to the wrong gender."

Mother Clare King, a school governor, said: "No Sussex Police, this is not a female crime."

Another woman said: “Men are committing horrific crimes in our name."

Ryan Richter, prosecuting, described Dixon's campaign of offending against two boys and five girls lasting eight years.

He told Lewes Crown Court: “The defendant, living as a man in the late 80s and 90s, was a brazen and callous sexual predator.

“He exploited young males and cultivated a toxic relationship with female children who he systematically abused throughout their childhoods.”

Dixon was jailed for six months in 1997 for the sexual abuse of a teenage boy and transitioned in 2004.

Sussex Police reopened their investigation into their earlier offending in 2019 following a new complaint from another victim.

Dixon lived in Crawley and Bexhill where he worked repairing televisions and as a DJ at bars, clubs and a caravan park.

He abused the children at a lock-up garage and in a caravan on the South Coast.

One woman said childhood abuse at the hands of Dixon left her with constant anxiety.

Dixon will serve 20 years in a women’s prison for crimes between 1989 and 1996.