A murderer who killed as a woman at the age of 16 is living as a trans man in Scotland’s women-only jail.
Nicolle Earley was one of Scotland’s youngest killers when jailed in 2010 for the brutal murder of pensioner Ann Gray in her home in Crosshill, Fife, in November 2008.
Now living as a man, and using the name ‘Kobi’, Earley is being housed in the admission hall at HMP Stirling, which is normally reserved for new offenders.
Earley has been convicted of multiple violent crimes while inside and was recently accused of grabbing a female officer by the hair and punching her in the face.
The prisoner, now 32, was given a minimum sentence of 14 years in 2014 for the senseless murder but has collected further sentences due to violent and erratic behaviour inside.
The killer has posed extra difficulties for the Scottish Prison Service, which has been under intense pressure due to the gender wrangles concerning male-to female trans prisoners like Isla Bryson and Tiffany Scott in recent months.
A source said: “This case is extraordinary because we have a very violent woman who now identifies as a man.
“The SPS is in a quandary as to where to house him, as there would be clear risks in putting such a person straight into the male prison estate.
“The situation now is that Earley is in the admissions hall, which is very unusual, and there have been multiple instances of him being accused of harassing and intimidating women who have been newly admitted to HMP Stirling.
“Earley was also very recently accused of attacking an officer who found him in a restricted area and ordered him to come out.
“The officer said he grabbed her hair and punched her and left her very shaken.”
The source added: “Earley’s case is very different to that of Isla Bryson and others who were seen as chancers who sought to improve their jail experience by changing gender.
“Staff have felt he has genuinely felt himself to be male and has been identifying as such for several years, before the latest trans stuff became global news. The problem is that the SPS does not have accommodation that would tick all the boxes for such a difficult prisoner.”
In 2008, Earley killed family friend Ann Gray, 63, in her own home in Methil, Fife, after a row over £5 and cigarettes.
Ann died as a result of a head injury after she was knocked to the ground and repeatedly stamped on.
The grandmother also suffered a fractured jaw and broken cheekbone along with a fractured bone in her upper neck.
Earley, of Methil, Fife, was jailed for life in 2010 and was ordered to serve a minimum of 14 years in prison.
She was due to attend a parole hearing in 2021 but that was cancelled because of other attacks on prisoners while inside.
In 2016 – while in court accused of another assault – Earley claimed she was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of flashbacks over the murder of Ann Gray.
Earley was given an extra six months at Stirling Sheriff Court for punching another inmate in Scotland’s only all-female jail.
In the same year, Early was earned another conviction for a similar attack on a different prisoner.
Although he handed a concurrent sentence, to run alongside others, Sheriff William Wood told Stirling Sheriff Court that the Parole Board could hold back eventual release.
The sheriff said Earley had an ‘unenviable record’ for crimes of violence.
Earley was appearing before Sheriff Wood after the resident sheriff in Stirling, Wyllie Robertson, declined to deal with her, after she once threatened him.
In 2013 Earley was given an additional 18 month sentence after she sent letters from her cell covered in blood and scrawled with swastikas.
She threatened to kill and cannibalise a local solicitor and send his face to a mask factory, adding that Sheriff Robertson ‘could join him.’
Parts of the letters read: ‘Do you have fears of getting tortured or having your family members taken away? That’s what will happen.
‘Are you a fan of Hannibal? I will rip you apart and eat you.”
She also praised serial killer Charles Manson and called Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik a ‘legend.’
At her sentencing for murder at the High Court in Edinburgh, Lady Dorrian told the weeping teenager: “Violence is part of your make-up.”
Neighbours of Earley said that, as a teenager, she was rarely seen without a bottle of Buckfast.
The court heard she had lived a chaotic childhood and had been abused as a child.
In relation to the most recent assault allegation, a Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 9am on Monday, 22 July, 2024, we received a report of a 50-year-old woman being assaulted by a 32-year-old prisoner at HMP Stirling, Cornton Road, Stirling.
“A report will be sent to the Procurator Fiscal.”
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