A trans-identified male has been convicted of kidnapping after deliberately striking a lone woman with a van, dragging her towards the vehicle and strangling her during a terrifying roadside attack earlier this year.
Sean Haverty, 28, now known as Safiya Anna Haverty, targeted the woman as she walked alone along Micheldever Road, near Andover in Hampshire, in March. According to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Haverty drove the van into the victim from behind without warning before getting out and attempting to drag her towards the vehicle. He then strangled her as she fought to escape.
The victim, who was reported at the time of Haverty’s arrest to be in her fifties, eventually managed to break free and run to safety. She managed to alert nearby members of the public, who contacted police.
On August 25, a jury at Winchester Crown Court found Haverty guilty of kidnapping, intentional strangulation, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and perverting the course of justice. Haverty had already pled guilty to dangerous driving at the same court earlier this year, and admitted being behind the wheel of the vehicle that struck the woman.
Though the victim had not seen her attacker’s face, police investigators and prosecutors established Haverty’s identity using eyewitness accounts, automatic number-plate recognition records, mobile phone data, and forensic evidence.
“This was a chilling attack on a complete stranger,” Senior Crown Prosecutor Natalie Cheesman said in a statement, adding that “Haverty drove to Hampshire before striking a lone woman with a van, dragging her towards the vehicle and strangling her.”
Cheesman said prosecutors had worked with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary to assemble the evidence required to prove Haverty was responsible. “We hope these convictions provide some reassurance to the victim that Haverty has been brought to justice,” she added.
When Haverty was first charged in March, police and local media explicitly identified him as a man and referred to him using his birth name. However, shortly after the trial began Judge Rufus Taylor informed jurors that Haverty had changed his name and was biologically male but that he was “presenting as a woman” in court. It is unclear when Haverty began identifying as a woman or formalized his new name, but it appears to have been following his arrest.
The original local report on the brazen attack also described the incident as an attempted kidnapping with intent to commit a sexual offense. But the CPS’s post-verdict announcement lists a conviction for kidnapping, rather than kidnapping with intent to commit a relevant sexual offense, and does not record a separate sexual offense conviction. Haverty is due to be sentenced at Winchester Crown Court on November 13.
Public records and archived online profiles show that Haverty had previously presented exclusively as a man.
A Backstage acting profile for Haverty lists him as a male model from Newquay, Cornwall, and photographs on the page appear to match images he had previously used across his social media accounts.
A LinkedIn profile using the same photograph identified Haverty as a freelance filmmaker from Quintrell Downs, near Newquay. In January 2024, Haverty also posted in an online casting group seeking male and female actors aged between 21 and 30 for a student film he was producing in Cornwall.
Companies House records listed under his name list the same month and year of birth, December 1997, and the Newquay address cited when Haverty was charged. The records show that he had served as a director of two since-dissolved companies, Notorious Apparel Limited and Preferred Recruitment Ltd.
The unprovoked attack bears similarities to several other cases previously reported by Reduxx involving trans-identified males targeting strangers.
In Australia, trans-identified male sex offender Lisa Jones stalked a woman walking home alone before grabbing her, pinning her down and attempting to rape her. The victim escaped after screaming her location during a telephone call and fighting Jones off until bystanders intervened. A sentencing judge described that assault as a “brazen and opportunistic” attack against a complete stranger. Jones, who had previously served six years in a male prison for sexually abusing a six-year-old girl, was later transferred to a women’s prison.
In Scotland, repeat child sex offender Connor Tait selected an 11-year-old boy “completely at random”, hid near where the child was playing and sexually assaulted him after grabbing him from behind. Tait later adopted a feminine identity after being released from prison.
Reduxx is your source of pro-woman, pro-child safeguarding news and commentary. We’re 100% independent! Support our mission by making a donation.
