A Montreal man who has spent the majority of his life in prison for repeatedly sexually assaulting women is seeking a transfer to a female prison. Manfred Sperling, 58, began to self-declare a transgender status while behind bars and now blames his predatory behavior on his “dead self.”
Sperling is currently serving a life sentence at Millhaven Institution, a maximum-security prison for men. Since the age of 19, Sperling has been in and out of prison for committing sex crimes, and received his first conviction for sexual assault in 1986. One of his first victims was reportedly an 11 year-old girl, whom Sperling groped at a local gym.
Following his release in 1998, the predator went on a five-day sexual assault spree. At least four victims were identified, including a child. Sperling grabbed the 12 year-old girl from behind by the neck and told her, “I’ll rape you,” but the girl was able to escape the attack.
Two days after that incident, Sperling attempted to assault a 53 year-old woman at a mall as she was leaving her car. However, she was able to fend him off and fled. Just one hour later, according to local newspaper The Gazette, Sperling again targeted a woman in a parking lot, where he ordered her to strip naked and raped her.
Sperling also has a history of assaulting female prison staff. In 1997 the serial predator grabbed a female guard by the neck and shoved her onto his bed.
Psychiatrist Dr. Louis Morissette provided testimony during a court hearing in which he labeled Sperling “an extreme case” while requesting that he be classified as a dangerous offender.
In Canada, being designated a dangerous offender is the most severe sentence under the criminal code. It is a status intended for the country’s most violent and high-risk criminals. A judge must determine that the criminal in question demonstrates a pattern of brutal and repetitive behavior, coupled with an indifference for the consequences of their actions. Once a convicted criminal is declared a dangerous offender, their sentence can be indeterminate, with their release depending not on the completion of a prison term, but on the judgement of the court system.
Dr. Morrisette told the court that Sperling is obsessed with sexually assaulting and raping women, saying, “That’s all he has in mind.”
In 2020, Sperling began claiming to identify as a transgender woman, and he now calls himself Amanda Joy Cooper.
In 2024, he received plastic surgery on his chest, as well as genital surgery to invert his penis. Both surgeries, which totaled around $30,000 according to the CBC, were subsidized by taxpayers.
Next week a Federal Court will hear arguments seeking Sperling’s transfer to a women’s facility. His lawyer, Jessica Rose, claims Sperling should be sent to a women’s prison because he is now defined as a “female” according to Canada’s correctional policy, having undergone surgery.
Rose leveraged her claim by highlighting a 2022 Correctional Service of Canada commissioner’s directive which states that the sex of an offender “is determined solely by their current genitalia.”
“Her message to us and her message to the court is, ‘I’m a woman with a vagina in a men’s prison. You think I’m safe here?’” Cooper’s lawyer, Jessica Rose, told The New York Post.
“From our perspective, Amanda’s gender identity and her genitals align. She is physically a woman, she identifies as a woman,” Rose added.
Corrections Canada has so far rejected the requests for a transfer, citing Sperling’s history of developing “obsessive attachments” to female prison staff. According to prison authorities, his assaults on female guards makes him a “very high risk to the safety” to female inmates.
During his first year in prison, Sperling threatened to rape and murder female employees, which resulted in his transfer to a super-maximum men’s prison in Quebec.
Corrections Canada also pointed out that Sperling has not taken accountability for his crimes, but rather has pinned the blame on his “dead self,” referring to his male self and newly declared identity as though they were two different people.
Reporting on the upcoming hearing, national broadcaster CBC referred to Sperling by his chosen name, Cooper, and used feminine pronouns to refer to him.
“She underwent gender surgery in September 2024. She now has a vagina and breasts. She has no penis. Her correctional records now list her sex as female,” reports the CBC.
Data from Corrections Canada reveals that there have been 129 requests from male convicts seeking transfers to women’s prisons during the period between 2017 and 2025. Of that total, 35 requests have been approved.
During that period, Corrections Canada approved the transfer of a sadistic pedophile known as Adam Laboucan, or Tara Desousa, to a women’s prison. Like Sperling, Laboucan is designated as a dangerous offender and is serving an indeterminate sentence.
In 1997, Laboucan was convicted of the violent rape of a 3-month-old infant. The infant was so brutally injured by the attack that he had to be flown to Vancouver, 410 miles away, to undergo reconstructive surgery.
After committing the horrific assault, Laboucan “mutilated himself and ate his own flesh,” according to news reports.
Laboucan began identifying as transgender while incarcerated and is currently being held in a women’s correctional facility with a mother and child unit where he has been said to be leering at the children. After a female inmate approached him and demanded that he desist in his threatening conduct, Laboucan assaulted her, fracturing several of her ribs.
A report released by the Canadian Correctional Service in 2022 revealed that 82% of “gender diverse” prisoners with a history of sexual offending were men who identified as “trans women.” Almost all (94%) had committed their offences while “living as their biological sex.” The majority (85%) committed offences that caused death or serious harm to their victim(s) while 70% inflicted psychological harm on their victim(s). Examination of the victimology shows that over half were children (58%) or female (55%). One-third (33%) of the offences committed had multiple victims.
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