UK: transgender woman said she would leave male prison 'in a box'

Inquest hears Vikki Thompson died within a month of arriving at HMP Leeds where she was classed as being a suicide risk.

A transgender woman sent to a male prison was found dead in her cell after repeatedly warning that she would leave “in a box”, a jury has heard.

Vikki Thompson, 21, had been living as a female since she was 10. She died within a month of arriving at HMP Leeds in October 2015. She had changed her name when she was 17, but had never applied for a gender recognition certificate and had not had any gender reassignment surgery, the coroner Jonathan Leach told Wakefield coroner’s court on Tuesday.

Under guidelines in England and Wales, prisoners are sent to a jail according to their birth gender unless they have received a gender recognition certificate.

Thompson, who struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, had been in touch with gender identity experts at the Tavistock clinic in London with a view to transitioning but had not begun any treatment before being sent to prison, the court heard.

On arrival in jail she was immediately classed as being a suicide risk, having told both prison officers and custody staff in court she would leave prison “in a box”.

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