Teenage boy tells of worst experience after being remanded in a women’s prison

Scotland: A trans-sexual teenager has spoken about month of hell in Scotland’s only women’s prison.

Stacie McLean, 16, was sent to Cornton Vale jail on remand after she appeared in court in relation to an alleged breach of the peace.

She claims she was bullied, sexually harassed and falsely accused of threatening to rape other inmates.

Stacie said: “It was a nightmare. The time in prison taught me a lesson I’ll never forget. I never want to go back.”

The teenager, who was formerly known as Callum, said: “When you see the looks on some of the faces of the inmates, you want to run.

“They weren’t all bad. A few were kind and wanted to look out for me.

“But some wanted to make my life a misery. Some complained and said I should be in a men’s jail. Others asked if I still had my tackle and would I go into their cells to see to them later.

“Others threatened to beat me up so I’d never be pretty enough to be accepted as a woman.

“But the worst thing was that a couple of them claimed I’d threatened to rape them.

“I’d never do that but the jail took it seriously. I was put on report, kept segregated and had my television taken away as a punishment.

“It was easily the worst month of my life. I was constantly scared and miserable.”

Last October, the Record told how Stacie had started to dress as a girl when she turned up for classes at Calderside Academy in Blantyre, Lanarkshire.

She said she had wanted to be a girl since reaching puberty.

Stacie now attends Glasgow’s Sandyford Clinic. She hopes to be prescribed female hormones before sex-change surgery.

The teenager was remanded to the jail, near Stirling, after she appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court following a row at a cafe in Irvine in June.

At the same court appearance, Stacie admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner and trying to pervert the course of justice at Kilwinning railway station earlier in June.

The case involving the row in the Irvine cafe has been passed to the Children’s Panel and is still under review.

Stacie is now in homeless accommodation and looking for a flat and a job in Glasgow.

A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: “We don’t comment on individual cases, but have well-established policies for dealing with trans-gender prisoners.

“We do so in a way that respects their rights and dignity and the rights and dignity of others.”