A prisoner who identifies as transgender is requesting taxpayer-funded “gender affirming care” through the National Healthcare System (NHS) in Scotland. Paris Green, 30, whose birth name is Peter Laing, is currently being held in the women’s section of Edinburgh’s Saughton jail, where he is serving a life sentence for murder.
Green is seeking to become the first prisoner in the United Kingdom to have the full procedure euphemistically referred to as ‘sex reassignment surgery’ on the public dime.
In 2013, Green was one of three men found guilty for the torture and murder of 45-year-old Robert Shankland.
Green, along with two other men had invited Shankland, 45, to a party at Green’s residence in Glenrothes, Fife, in March of 2013. Once Shankland arrived, the men tied him up, then beat and tortured him for seven hours. Shankland was also sexually assaulted him with a rolling pin before he died as a result of either suffocation or blunt force injuries. The three killers then sold Shankland’s mobile phone for £26 and spent the money on sandwiches, which they ate at the scene of the crime as Shankland took his final breaths.
When sentencing the trio at the High Court in Glasgow, Judge John Morris called the crime “utterly depraved,” stating: “This was a particularly gruesome murder which effectively involved the torture of your victim over many hours. It beggars belief that you could act towards another human being in this way.”
Upon conviction, Green was initially detained at Cornton Vale women’s prison, but was transferred to the women’s ward in Edinburgh after only five weeks in detention because he repeatedly engaged in sexual relations with the female inmates.
Speaking to the Daily Record from jail, Green said that he regretted committing the “inexcusable” crime and insisted that undergoing genital surgery would help him become rehabilitated. He blamed his “anger” over his identity for his violent actions and said he felt disgusted by his genitals.
“Nothing is more important to me than becoming fully the person I should have been. I want to feel comfortable in the shower rather than feeling repulsed. Having male genitalia feels wrong.”
When asked why he had committed the brutal murder, he said: “It was inexcusable – all I can say is I had a really awful childhood and was totally messed up. I was carrying a lot of anger inside me even before I realized I should have been a woman and that made me more angry.”
Green initially began taking hormones in 2011, and met with a surgeon at Nuffield Clinic in Brighton in 2020. But the medical professional delayed the procedure after expressing concern for the safety of other patients on the ward due to the nature of Green’s sadistic crime.
Shankland’s family members have for several years campaigned against Green being housed with women, as well as being permitted to receive state-funded medical interventions. In 2018, the estimated cost to taxpayers for Green’s surgery was said to be approximately £20,000. Over the past decade, relatives of the victim have launched petitions and contacted representatives to state their case.
One petition, created by Leigh Robb, states: “My uncle Robert was brutally murdered by three people who were all sentenced to a minimum of 18 years. Problem is that one of his murderers is a man who likes to be known as a woman ‘Paris’. This man is set to undergo full gender realignment on the NHS payed [sic] for by us tax payers. He should not be rewarded for this brutal crime and should serve his time in a man’s prison. Please help me get some justice for my uncle and our family.”
Family members spoke with The Daily Mail in 2018, detailing their objections to Green’s placement in a woman’s prison and to his potential surgery. Pauline Bell, Shankland’s sister, said, “[He] should not be getting the operation on the NHS. It’s not lifesaving treatment. [He] took somebody’s life away and destroyed a family.”
Shankland’s mother, Mary, told the press, “Green doesn’t know the meaning of the word remorse. [He] shouldn’t get the operation, especially when so many people need vital treatment on the NHS – and they’re not getting it. But the authorities are jumping through hoops for him.”
Shankland’s family also set up a Facebook page, Justice for Robert Shankland, where they shared updates and attempted to gain support for their efforts.
On one post from 2013, a woman who claims to have been housed in Cornton Vale with Green during the five-week period he was held there commented in support of the victim’s family, saying that the convicted murderer told her how he had committed the grotesque slaying. She also claimed that Green threatened to kill himself should he be sentenced to life in prison.
Using a mixture of both masculine and feminine pronouns, she said that Green was “vile to the core” and that he selectively took hormones, like a “game” he was playing with the staff at the women’s prison. “It’s always going to be [a] game to Paris. I can’t ever forget. I hate [him] with a passion,” the former inmate wrote.
Another former prisoner detained with Green similarly remarked: “When I first went in [he] looked, talked and acted like a woman. But [he] had a spell where [his] behavior changed. It seemed [he] was having doubts, had stopped taking the hormones and was growing facial hair again. [He] was also sexually active and everyone knew about it. [He] had at least one girlfriend.’
Still another anonymous insider told the media that Green was notorious for having sexual relations with female inmates, adding: “He didn’t seem to be acting much like a woman to me.”
At the end of January, following a slew of violent male criminals claiming to identify as women and some requesting housing in the women’s estate, the UK Ministry of Justice updated its transgender prisoner policy. The new framework restricts male inmates with intact genitalia, or those who have been convicted of a sexual offense, from being placed in women’s prisons. In February, the Scottish Prison Service confirmed that newly convicted or remanded prison inmates will initially be placed in jails according to their sex at birth.
Speaking with the Daily Record, Dr. Kate Coleman of the campaign group Keep Prisons Single Sex, said, “Green, who is serving a sentence for torture and murder, would, under the new Ministry of Justice policy, be held in the male estate. We hope the SPS [Scottish Prison Service] will similarly place the safety of women at the center of their revised policy when the policy is finally released.”
A report from The Times in 2018 revealed that a senior official of the Scottish Prison Service, Gordon Pike, who was one of those responsible for its “gender identity and gender reassignment policy,” would turn out to be a sex offender himself, having hoarded 22,000 indecent pictures of children.
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