A trans-identified male from Brighton is being held in a women’s prison while on trial for the murder of his husband. Joanna Rowland-Stuart, 70, was previously an outspoken trans activist and served as the former director of the LGBT Community Safety Forum, an organization which worked directly with lawmakers and Sussex Police.
On the evening of May 27, medics were called to the home of Joanna and Andrew Rowland-Stuart, where the latter was found suffering from multiple stab wounds, reportedly from a samurai sword.
Despite efforts on the part of emergency personnel to save his life, the 70 year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. Police then arrested Joanna on suspicion of murder, and he was remanded to Lewes prison, a facility for men, to await his hearing.
However, according to a recent update from Brighton and Hove News, Joanna, formerly known as John Stuart, was transferred at an unknown date within the past month to Downview in Surrey, a women’s prison.
Additionally, news outlets, most notably the BBC, have referred to Stuart simply as a “woman,” as did a press release published by Sussex Police after his arrest on May 31.
In 2006, the Irish Independent reported on the marriage of the two men as “Britain’s first civil transgender lesbian wedding.” At the time, Andrew Rowland was also identifying as transgender and used the feminine name ‘Angie.’ Some time later, he appears to have detransitioned, and was “living” as a man prior to his murder.
Reduxx can reveal that before their civil union, the couple regularly attended BDSM events in Brighton, with Stuart acting as an organizer and liaison for attendees. Stuart referred to himself as “Aurora Stormchild,” and styled himself as a female dominatrix.
Stuart was an active member of a BDSM club called Informed Consent, which billed itself as “the leading UK BDSM website” in 2002. The website offered a section for personals ads, linked to members’ blogs, connected various UK fetish communities, hosted chat groups, offered BDSM tutorials, and promoted sex shops.
Stuart was also the point of contact from 2002 to 2003 for meet-ups held at the Theatre Bar in the Marlborough Hotel. Stuart and Rowland appear to have first met each other while “living” as “women” and participating in the BDSM scene.
By tracing now-defunct email addresses, Reduxx located messages both Stuart and Rowland shared within a UK BDSM group located on Usenet. In September 2002, Rowland, using the name Angie, described himself as “subbie” (submissive) to Stuart, who used the handle JSAurora in the group.
Posting as ‘Aurora,’ Stuart interacted with members of the fetish community and demonstrated knowledge of all of the local fetish shops in Brighton.
One discussion in particular revolved around the closure of a fetish shop known as Kentucky Woman, which sold bondage equipment, sex toys, latex gear, lingerie, and so-called “sissy” dresses, or clothing intended to resemble the stereotypical attire of very young girls.
According to another post made in the forum, Stuart and Rowland held a BDSM wedding ceremony in September 2002 at a club called Acceptance located in Croydon. Writing about the experience, Stuart divulged that Rowland had previously been calling himself Angie, but as a symbolic gesture of ownership, Stuart decided to rename him Electra.
“Our ceremony (in which I renamed my girl Angie, giving her the name Electra, was about fifteen to twenty minutes long. Mme. Tytania (our High Priestess of Kink and the House Domme) asked Electra, who was kneeling on a pretty red heart shaped cushion, if she understood what the collar meant and its significance regarding her commitment, and asked her if she would honour that collar and obey Me,” wrote Stuart.
Rather than presenting each other with wedding rings, the two men, who were referring to themselves as lesbian women, instead locked each other in collars and chains.
“The collar was a purple suede leather collar with metal links, and a lead,” Stuart continued.
“I then locked the collar on Electra’s neck, then unlocked it and asked her once again if she really wanted this. Receiving an affirmative answer I relocked the collar on her neck and gave her the key. In another act of submission she put the key onto a silver chain which she kissed and then fastened round My wrist.”
A personal website created by Stuart in 2002 was located by Reduxx in which he describes himself as Aurora Stormchild, a “male to female pre-operative transsexual switch living in Brighton” and a “24/7 Domme to Electra.”
Among his hobbies, Stuart lists BDSM and clubbing, and indicates that he was active in an IRC bondage chat group.
Shortly after Stuart and Rowland began their relationship, Stuart became heavily involved in trans activism.
As early as 2006, Stuart was giving presentations on transgender ideology through PCS Proud, the LGBT wing of the PCU, a union for public sector employees. As the organization’s only designated transgender lead, Stuart apparently was responsible for the production or distribution of educational materials, as evidenced by a rudimentary website circa 2008.
One of the resources still available on the site at the time of this writing is a PDF file titled, “Words Can Hurt,” which describes a situation of bullying at work which results in the target of insults committing suicide.
“I heard them all the time, talking about me behind my back, whispering. I hated work… Words can kill… When the pills didn’t work I took a razor to my wrist. THINK ABOUT YOUR LANGUAGE,” the promotional material reads.
Stuart was also involved in the Brighton and Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum and, in 2015, laid a wreath of poppies in honor of LGBT service personnel during the Brighton Remembrance Day ceremony.
Following the news that Stuart had been quietly shuffled into the Downview women’s prison, concerned UK citizens have been raising questions on social media.
One women’s rights campaigner said she had spoken with Dr. Kate Coleman, formerly of the campaign group Keep Prisons Single Sex. A statement alleged to have been drafted by Coleman called attention to a February 2023 revision to UK’s prison policies regarding trans-identified inmates.
According to the updated measures, “transgender women who are sentenced to custody in the future will not be held in the general women’s estate if they retain male genitalia or have been convicted of a violent or sexual offence – unless in the most exceptional cases.”
As Stuart is awaiting trial for allegedly committing a violent murder, Coleman argued that “this allocation decision can, and should, be challenged.”
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