A male who identifies as a “woman” has been sentenced to nine years in prison for setting a homeless man on fire after alleging the man had harassed him.
Frederick James Fulford, 28, was sentenced to nine years in prison at a District Court in Queensland, Australia yesterday following a conviction on one count of malicious intent to cause grievous bodily harm at a jury trial held last month. The sentence was related to a horrifying attack committed in Townsville’s Bulletin Square in March of 2021.
Fulford, who was also homeless at the time of the Bulletin Square assault, had reportedly been intoxicated when he committed the terrifying act. He had drunk “most of a bottle of rum” and some cask wine, and was also under the influence of marijuana and huffed gasoline.
The prosecutor explained that Fulford was on the ground and holding a jug of gas when the homeless man walked up to him and made a sexual remark.
In CCTV footage displayed during the trial, Fulford was seen quickly jumping to his feet and dousing the man in the gas he had been huffing. He then used a cigarette lighter to set him on fire.
According to the Townsville Bulletin, the man ignited into a ball of flame and ran away. He was found a short time later and immediately rushed to hospital where it was determined burns covered 8-9% of his body.
He spent 20 days in hospital, and had to get skin grafts to repair the third-degree burns he suffered, most of which were on his back, neck, left arm and left ear.
The homeless man will have significant skin damage for the rest of his life.
During sentencing, the court was advised that Fulford had a difficult upbringing, and that he had begun taking hormone replacement therapy while in prison which “weakened” him and left him open to attack from male inmates. Fulford apparently began identifying as transgender at age 15.
Judge Gregory Lynham acknowledged that Fulford had a horrendous background as he sentenced him to nine years in prison, noting that he had 5 previous convictions for primarily violent offenses prior to the attack in Bulletin Square.
Local media reports, as well as the Daily Mail, referred to Fulford using “she/her” pronouns and identified him as a “woman.”
Current details on the case suggest that Fulford was being held in a men’s prison prior to his sentencing, but he may request transfer to a women’s prison now that he has been sentenced.
According to Women’s Forum Australia, the state of Queensland, where Fulford was sentenced, has no straightforward policies on where to place transgender inmates, but individuals are usually accommodated on a case-by-case basis.
Prison gender self-identification laws have become a significant discussion in Australia following a recent protest by female inmates against a trans-identified male they were being incarcerated with.
In August of 2022, female inmates at Australia’s largest women’s correctional facility in Victoria launched a petition to have a trans-identified male sex offender removed out of fears for their own safety.
The women advised media that they had no prejudices against transgender individuals, but were concerned for their safety as the transfer had a “working” penis and a history of violent sexual assault. According to the petition — after learning of the convict’s transfer, “the mental well-being of many of the women was severely compromised. They became visibly upset as they were triggered and traumatized.”
While the name of the transferred inmate was not released to the public, Reduxx determined that the details from the criminal’s background mirror that of Lisa Jones, a trans-identified male who had been sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison for sexually assaulting a woman last year. During his trial, it was revealed that Jones also had a prior record for sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl in Germany.
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