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A trans-identified male recently convicted for the possession of horrific child sexual abuse materials is currently living across from a children’s playground while out on unconditional bail. A source has now come forward to reveal more sickening details about Tanya Howes, who pleaded guilty on May 3 to possessing child abuse images, some of which were in the most extreme category.
Howes, 66, appeared at Norwich Magistrates Court last month on three counts of “possessing indecent photographs of a child” and a separate charge for possessing 100 “extreme” and “grossly offensive” pornographic images and videos.
Of the images in Howes’ possession, 29 were classified as Category C, 17 as Category B, and 39 as Category A, which is the most serious type of child sexual abuse media. Images and video in this category can depict penetrative sexual activity, bestiality, and/or sexual sadism.
Howes entered a plea of guilty and was released on unconditional bail pending a sentencing hearing scheduled for July 4.
But following Reduxx‘s coverage of Howes’ case, a victim has come forward to reveal more sickening details about the pedophile, including that he has been allowed to reside directly across from a children’s playground while free in the community ahead of his sentencing.
UK: A trans-identified male has pleaded guilty to possessing child sexual abuse materials, some of which were in the most extreme category.
— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) May 4, 2023
Tanya Howes, 66, previously worked for the UK Prison Service and represented it at Norwich Pride in 2011.https://t.co/7KxaQL9BlG
Jennifer* first met Howes in 2016 when she was almost four decades younger than he was. Immediately, Jennifer says, Howes took a liking to her, and began a process she now looks back upon as having been “grooming.”
Jennifer became pregnant with her second child after meeting Howes, and says the decades-older Howes frequently doted on her and made her feel special and dependent on their friendship.
“I didn’t drive so he’d help me out and then would always be there. He was very helpful and almost made me rely on him,” she explained to Reduxx, noting that she recognizes now that she often felt “dependent” on Howes. “I didn’t realize what was happening at the time, and it was only going back through messages that made me realize how he did it.”
Having just escaped an abusive situation, Jennifer says she needed friends she could rely upon, and Howes used her vulnerability as leverage.
“I was vulnerable, I was on my own. Mentally, I was in a bad place,” she says. “He used that to get to me. People I met through him would tell me to be careful but I ignored them.”
Jennifer asserts that she had “no inclination” at the time that Howes was actively collecting a trove of child sexual abuse imagery, or that he had any attraction to children. But, reflecting on the situation, Jennifer acknowledges that there were some red flags she had been quick to dismiss.
“I think I overlooked some of his behaviors because I didn’t want to be seen as prejudiced or transphobic,” Jennifer says, explaining that during the time period she had met Howes, she had a more “open minded” view of gender ideology.
“People called him ‘Tranya’ behind his back. I would think ‘God, you can’t say that.’ I wouldn’t tell him,” she says.
Jennifer says that she broke off the friendship with Howes in early 2018, but that some people had begun warning her about Howes’ behavior when she wasn’t present.
“They told me he would talk about me behind my back, and was hurting me emotionally,” she says. “One person commented that he wanted to keep me vulnerable and dependent.”
Jennifer learned about Howes’ pedophilia only after the news of his charges began to circulate through the press.
Immediately, she says, her first concern was for her children, whom Howes had direct contact with including when Jennifer was not present.
“I was disgusted. I was terrified that my children had been abused, or that he had photos of them that had been shared. That was my biggest worry, that my children had been abused.”
Jennifer says she immediately called the Norwich Police, demanding to know if her children were amongst those in the photos that had been found in Howes’ possession.
“I called on a Tuesday, and had to wait until Friday to find out my children hadn’t been abused. Thank God,” she says. “At the same time as he was helping me with my kids and babysitting them, he was looking at vile images. Its makes me want to puke.”
Jennifer says the Police informed her that the images in Howes’ possession were “first generation.” Child sexual abuse images classified as “first generation” indicate they were materials already in circulation when compared against an official database of known child abuse media, and were not new images produced or obtained by Howes. Classifying images as known or unknown often assists police in tracing the circulation of existing media and differentiating them from new abuse images where unknown victims may exist.
But after hearing back from officers involved in the investigation, Jennifer says she was told that the police had been inundated with similar calls from other parents of children in the community Howes had direct contact with.
“He had a lot of friends who had families. He was well-known in the community,” she says. Noting that Howes had even offered to babysit other people’s children in the area.
The images in Howes’ possession had reportedly been dated from 2009 to 2020. When asked why she felt Howes had been overlooked by police for so long, Jennifer says his gender identity likely played a factor.
“Honestly, probably because no one would dare accuse the trans person. Its too taboo, very much ‘you cant say that,’” she says.
Reflecting on the situation, Jennifer says she is “disgusted” with Howes’ violation of her trust and vulnerability, but she also expresses outrage at the justice system in the United Kingdom for what she perceives as insufficient action in the prosecution of pedophiles.
“You can be friends with someone and not know they’re a pedophile,” Jennifer says. “The UK justice system is a joke. It is not fit for purpose … [Howes] lives across from a park. There are no bail conditions. So he can go to any parks, see any children. Drug takers will be tagged, but not pedophiles.”
Disturbingly, Howes was once a prison official working in a UK correctional facility. As previously reported by Reduxx, Howes’ social media profiles suggested he was once employed by the UK government in a sensitive position.
On his Twitter account, where he went by the handle @call_me_psychic, Howes posted that he was “Giving a talk to the transgender prisoners. My first as a civilian and not an officer.” Howes accompanied his tweet with a link to a Foursquare Swarm which showed he had checked in at HMP Bure, a prison in Norfolk.
While Reduxx was unable to determine the exact institution Howes was employed at at the time, Jennifer has confirmed it was the HMP Norwich, a men’s prison.
In addition to offering details on her own experience with Howes, Jennifer provided Reduxx with a collection of disturbing screenshots belonging to Howes’ secret fetish accounts. After she had learned of Howes’ crimes, she began combing through their old Facebook conversations and noticed a username associated with another one of Howes’ accounts that she began to investigate further. She uncovered a trove of sickening imagery.
The vast majority of the photos are too graphic to publish, but almost all featured extremely disturbing sexual themes. In some, Howes is seen naked and wrapped in cling-film, masturbating with dog penis-inspired sex toys, and dressed as a diaper-wearing baby.
In some images, Howes is engaged in vile BDSM acts with a man he calls “bitchfixer.”
Jennifer says she came forward with the information about Howes in an effort to both warn others and make public details about his behavior that had gone unreported by media.
“It feels like, as a country, not enough is done to protect children. And you are in a position where you can’t protect yourself,” she says. “I certainly don’t tar all trans as pedophiles. But in the United Kingdom we’re directly told that there isn’t any evidence of trans pedophiles. Howes’ crimes, and any male-to-female crime, was being reported as a crime committed as a women in our national statistics. That is wrong.”
Research into sexual fetishes, which are known as paraphilias to psychologists and other professionals, has consistently identified patterns of escalation, comorbidity, and criminal behavior. Paraphilic disorders refer to recurrent, sexually arousing fantasies or behaviors involving objects, children, or non-consenting adults.
Over the past year, there have been several cases involving trans-identified males convicted of having child sexual abuse imagery and receiving incomprehensibly light sentences as a result of their transgender status.
Last June, a sick predator who was caught with over 125,000 pieces of child sexual abuse images was spared prison after a judge ruled he was too vulnerable to go to prison.
Peter Selby, 68, accumulated sadistic images of children as young as 3 years old.
During sentencing, the presiding judge acknowledged that no one would seek out child sexual abuse media “unless they have a sexual interest in children to start with,” yet declined to sentence Selby to an immediate prison sentence.
“You identify as transgender and that has caused issues for you and anxiety for you in how you would cope with that if you were sent immediately to prison,” the judge stated, adding: “You are someone who identifies as transgender and the impact of custody would be significant for you in the circumstances.”
Selby was handed a 14-month sentence, suspended for two years, on three charges of making indecent images of children, and one of possessing extreme pornography, which involved an adult engaged in a sex act with an animal.
*The name of the subject has been changed to protect her identity and the privacy of her family.
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