FEMALE inmates are being put at risk of sexual assault from men using gender personas and moved to women only prisons, an MP has warned.

Speaking in the Commons, Shipley MP Philip Davies said a recent case of a man who dressed as a woman to be moved and subsequently carried out four sexual assaults was evidence action was needed to stop the blatant abuse of the gender recognition rules and asked for a debate in Parliament.

Mr Davies said: “David Thompson started wearing women’s clothes and a wig and changed his name to Karen White so he could be moved to a female prison which unbelievably he was from where he sexually abused four female prisoners and his conviction was confirmed in the courts last week.

“Can we have a debate as to how we can stop this madness which created four unnecessary female victims of crime through this pursuing this madness, and if it is not stopped will create further unnecessary victims of crimes. This is putting women at risk and please can we have a debate to find out how we can stop this from ever happening again.”

A court last week said 52-year-old White used her “transgender persona” to get herself moved to Wakefield’s New Hall women’s prison where she was held on remand accused of a knife attack and raping two women and went on to commit further sexual assaults.

Mr Davies said: “Four women have suffered because this person was allowed to use transgender status to get moved to a women’s prison. We are talking about someone who was on remand for rape and the court described as predatory and highly manipulative, so it begs the question why on earth was that transfer allowed and those women put at risk. This person has a history of sexual offending dating back decades why was this not flagged up. It is absolutely disgusting and should not be allowed to happen again.”

White had a history of sexual offending dating back to 1989 when then a man, including indecent exposure to a child, gross indecency of a child and rape of a pregnant woman and multiple rapes of another women, all before changing his identity.

Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom said: “This subject of the abuse of legal gender recognition processes has been raised a number of times in a number of different ways. The Government does want to make the legal gender recognition process less intrusive and bureaucratic for transgender people but at the same time to ensure we protect women from abuse.”