A trans-identified male spared a prison sentence after threatening to bludgeon a man with a claw hammer has again avoided jail after threatening to kill women’s rights campaigners. Layla Le Fey, 44, was handed a combined 20-week suspended sentence for violent threats he sent to Helen Joyce and Kellie Jay Keen, two well-known women critical of gender identity ideology, in which he fantasized about butchering and dismembering them.
Last year, Le Fey sent the violent messages via a now-suspended account on X (formerly Twitter) from March through June. Using the handle @laylalefey1, Le Fey stated he was “interested in setting fire” to Keen’s home while she was inside.
Le Fey had also communicated his desire to “kick the s**t out of” her, rip her eyes out, and break her spine in a bizarre bid to “prove [her] point” that “some trans people are extremely violent.” That same day, Le Fey stated that he would enjoy either seeing Keen brutally killed by a “misogynist psychopath” or acting out the murder himself.
Also targeted by Le Fey was author Helen Joyce, a vocal critic of gender identity ideology and Director of Advocacy for the women’s rights charity Sex Matters.
“God how I would love to just rip your eyes out, chop your hands off, and carve your face up really badly,” Le Fey said to Joyce on March 20. His macabre comment was made in response to Joyce’s 2022 post announcing the publication of her book, Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.
Le Fey pleaded guilty in a Brighton court yesterday to four offenses under the communications act, including threats of arson.
While reading a victim impact statement out in court, Joyce said: “I’m used to robust and unpleasant debate online. I never get into back and forths and accept that other people have the right to criticize what I say. But seeing the things they were expressing, describing to me how much he would enjoy cutting me, is something else altogether.”
Keen, when presenting her victim impact statement, emphasized that Le Fey is a man who terrorizes women. “A violent man committed a crime,” she said. “The violent threats had far greater impact on my husband and children than me. They are very worried for my safety.”
“Terrorizing women into silence was the intent of this man. I want to make it clear, this crime was committed by a man,” she continued. “This is what happens when women speak up. I didn’t want to elevate this person’s comments, so I did not respond. These tweets disturbed me and I’ve no doubt given the opportunity this person would have carried out these threats… My whereabouts is often known and I have no doubt, given the opportunity, this person would be a threat to my wellbeing.”
Le Fey’s defense attorney, Cathy Walker, referred to him with feminine pronouns while arguing that he had been struggling with his mental health when he made the threats. Walker also claimed that he had had no intention to act on them. Le Fey was sentenced to a consecutive 10 weeks for the threats against Keen, and another 10 concurrent weeks for the messages he sent to Joyce.
Additionally, he is subject to an 18-month restraining order which prohibits him from either contacting or attending events involving either Keen or Joyce, and has been ordered to participate in 25 days’ involvement in a rehabilitation program.
Following the series of violent posts last year, Le Fey was arrested in June by Sussex Police after a massive outcry from concerned supporters of Keen and Joyce.
Le Fey has a history of violence, and, according to the Daily Mail, a lengthy criminal record. He has been convicted for more than 50 prior offenses, including several for wielding weapons in public.
Le Fey had also previously avoided a prison sentence as a direct result of his transgender status. In 2020, Le Fey was convicted of common assault and possession of an offensive weapon after attempting to steal wine from a Budgens in Brighton. During the incident, which took place on November 6th, 2019, Le Fey brandished a claw hammer and used it to threaten the cashier. He was apprehended by police after he swiped another bottle of wine and attempted to flee.
During court proceedings, presiding Judge Stephen Mooney initially called Le Fey’s crime “inexcusable,” and sentenced him to serve a suspended six-month sentence in prison, along with a 30-session rehabilitative therapy order. But within the hour, Judge Mooney overturned his own decision, citing a lack of evidence of Le Fey’s gender reassignment.
Because the court could not establish whether Le Fey had undergone genital surgery, it was argued that a prison term presented an inhumane situation which could not be easily resolved.
Le Fey has gone under several names, including Marcus Smith, Adam Hodgson, and David.
As Le Fey lacked a legal document known as a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), Le Fey’s attorney, Rebecca Upton, remarked: “The only way Le Fey could prove her new gender would be an ‘undignified examination,’ one which court staff were not prepared to do.”
Without a GRC or physical examination, Le Fey, considered a vulnerable minority under the law, would have then been forced to serve his sentence at the Lewes Prison, a correctional facility for men. Judge Mooney refused to do so, and commented that he could not allow Le Fey to serve his sentence in the male estate.
“We live in a society which acknowledges and embraces diversity and allows and encourages people to live the life they want to. Sometimes society does not make the necessary or appropriate adjustments in all ways it can to reflect the adjustments of society as a whole,” Judge Mooney said.
“Having reflected again upon the impact an immediate custodial sentence would have, the difficulties there are and the intractable problems the prison service would face, I have reconsidered whether imprisonment must be immediate,” he added. “In light of this information I have come to the conclusion that in your particular case it allows me to hope for some form of rehabilitation.”
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