A child killer and her trans lover claim they have been subjected to a four year hate campaign in jail.
Nyomi Fee, who killed her toddler stepson, and Alex Stewart, who changed sex after being jailed for murder, have accused another prisoner of branding them “the trannie and the beast”.
Hairdresser Jayney Sutherley, who killed a man with scissors, faces charges of persecuting Stewart – formerly known as Alan Baker – and Fee with abusive remarks between 2019 and 2023.
Sutherley, 51, is also accused of encouraging other prisoners at HMP Greenock’s all-female wing to join in the abuse.
She has pled not guilty to all charges at Greenock Sheriff Court.
Stewart, 36, has lived at HMP Greenock as a woman since 2016, despite having no surgery other than the reduction of an Adam’s apple.
Tearful Stewart told the court of suicidal feelings after alleged transphobic outbursts by Sutherley – including being told she should sing Shania Twain’s “Man I Feel Like a Woman’ at a Christmas karaoke.
Stewart told the court the abuse started in 2019, shortly after Sutherley was moved to Greenock’s Darroch Hall.
Stewart said: “I was sitting with her doing exercises and she referred to her previous job, when she was ‘working with trannies.’
“I took it offensively because ‘trannies’ in not something in my vocabulary or in the vocabulary of other women in the hall.’
“On numerous occasions she would refer to me as ‘he’ or ‘him’. That belittled me because it’s not how I identify and it’s not who I am. I identify as a trans female.”
Stewart said she was hounded by Sutherley between 2019 and 2023, adding: “She would continually laugh and say she was disgusted by people who were trans or people who identified as gay or lesbian.”
Stewart and Nyomi Fee, a lesbian, became a couple in December 2019, the court heard.
Stewart claimed: “Janey often referred to us as ‘the trannie and the beast’ or ‘beastie balls’ or as ‘the trannie and the dyke’. I was appalled.”
In the summer of 2021, Stewart claimed that Sutherley – who was in a relationship with a male prisoner housed in another part of the jail – shouted out loudly about Fee: “Why can she sit with her man when I can’t sit with mine.”
Stewart said: “I tried to laugh it off the best I could but I was feeling angry and very upset by the comments.
“The first thought that went through my head was ‘should I just commit suicide’?”
Another flare-up was witnessed by renowned Scottish artist Gerard Burns, who was doing an art workshop in the prison in 2022.
Stewart said: “Janey Sutherley referred to my artwork as ‘The Trannie Show’ after the artist Gerard Burns favoured work I had done.”
At Christmas 2022, another alleged flashpoint happened at the prison karaoke night.
Stewart said: “Janey Sutherley mad a comment at karaoke about , saying I should sing ‘Man, I Feel Like a Woman.’ She was referring to my trans identity.
“She wouldn’t refer to me by my name or gender pronouns – just ‘thingie.’”
Stewart also claimed that Sutherley loudly accused her of sexually assaulting one prisoner and raping another.
In cross examination, defence solicitor Paul Lynch asked if Stewart had undergone any gender reassignment surgery.
Stewart said the only procedure had been a tracheal shave – which reduces the Adam’s apple.
Lynch added “If a person held a genuine belief that you were a biological male that would be correct?”
Stewart said she was not at court to discuss matters of sexual identity.
Stewart also faced claims in cross examination that no complaints had been made about Sutherley’s conduct until 2023 – at the time of a scandal erupting over the case of Isla Bryson.
That case exposed how a double rapist, formerly known as Adam Graham, has declared himself to be a woman and was heading to a women’s prison until a major review was launched.
The review involved risk assessments for all trans prisoners in the Scottish prison estate, which created the possibility of trans prisoners being transferred to a male jail.
The case also heard from another convicted killer, Lynnette Greenop, who was jailed for a minimum of 23 years in 2018 after being convicted of sister Sharon’s brutal murder in Ayrshire.
Greenop was asked if she was being persuaded to join Stewart and Fee, her friends, in making claims about Sutherley, with whom she’d fallen out with.
When questioned she said that she had never witnessed Sutherley make transphobic statements in front of Stewart or Fee.
Stewart, born Alan Baker, was caged for at least 19 years for repeatedly knifing dad-of-two John Weir, 36.
In 2016 it was revealed that Stewart was living as a woman behind bars and wore a padded bra and make up on the female wing.
Nyomi Fee, 37, is serving 24 years after she and civil partner Rachel Trelfa, 34, were convicted for killing Trelfa’s son Liam in 2014 following a horrific campaign of neglect and abuse.
Sutherley was jailed for six years in 2020 for the culpable homicide of Alistair MacFadyen in a flat in Paisley.
The single charge against her claims she behaved in a threatening or abusive manner, using transphobic and homophobic insults and threats of violence.
She is also accused of inciting others to utter offensive remarks and make spurious complaints. The trial continues.
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