A transgender woman who was being held in an all-male prison has been moved to a women’s facility, her mother has said.
Tara Hudson has been transferred from HMP Bristol to Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire, according to Jackie Brooklyn.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) refused to confirm the move on Friday night, but released a statement making it clear that it had the discretion to carry out a transfer and would place prisoners in a way that made their welfare the top priority.
Brooklyn said her daughter was “a lot happier” after the move. Describing her relief at her daughter’s move, she added that she would sleep well tonight “at long last”.
The transfer came after a judge called for a rethink of where Hudson was made to serve the 12-week sentence she was given for an assault committed late last year.
Hearing an appeal against her sentence on Friday, Recorder Llewellyn Sellick, leading a panel of three judges, ruled that Hudson should remain behind bars, citing the 26-year-old’s “worrying criminal record” and the fact she had breached a conditional discharge.
But he added that the judges would “invite further and sensitive consideration” of where the sentence was served.
The MoJ said: “It is longstanding policy to place offenders according to their legally recognised gender. However, our guidelines allow room for discretion and, in such cases, medical experts will review the circumstances in order to protect the emotional wellbeing of the person concerned.
“Our top priority is the safety and welfare of those in our custody and decisions relating to the location of transgender prisoners are taken by a range of people including psychologists, healthcare professionals and prison staff.”
During the appeal hearing at Bristol crown court, Hudson’s barrister Nicholas Wragg said his client’s sentence was excessive and that she had suffered a torrid time while locked up in the all-male category B prison.
The makeup artist has lived as a woman all her adult life and had six years of gender reconstruction surgery, but is still legally classed as male. Wragg said his client had been separated from the rest of the prison population and “locked in a cell 23 hours a day”.
He told the court: “The clang of a prison door should never be pleasant. It should have a sobering effect on a person. But Ms Hudson has had an awful time – she has found it unrelenting and frightening.
“As she left prison today to come to court – where she was placed in a female cell – she found herself taunted by other inmates shouting: ‘Tara Tara, show us your tits.’”
A visibly startled Hudson sat in the dock in a prison-issue grey tracksuit while her barrister called for her to be freed. The court heard Hudson had seen mental health professionals after suffering with psychotic symptoms since 2009. These had been made worse since going to the all-male jail.
Hudson was jailed by magistrates on Friday after admitting an assault on a bar manager. She confessed to headbutting Christopher Dyer while drunk after being refused service at a Be At One bar in Bath on Boxing Day last year. Dyer needed dental surgery costing £1,500 as a result of the attack, the court heard.
Before her trial last week, Hudson, who has eight previous convictions including battery offences, had initially denied any wrongdoing and claimed self-defence. However, on the day, she changed her plea to guilty.
Hudson’s mother, Jackie Brooklyn, told the Guardian on Thursday that the plea change had been an attempt to persuade the court to be more lenient. They had hoped her punishment would see her placed on electronic tag and to be told to undergo an alcohol awareness course.
But magistrates said the assault, which came three weeks after Hudson had been given a conditional discharge, was so serious that only custody was justified.
Brooklyn said she was told her daughter had been transferred to a women’s prison.
Hudson’s case had sparked a campaign for her to be moved elsewhere, including a Change.org petition that was signed by about 160,000 people.
Cerian Jenkins, of the Bath Gender Equality Network, said she and her fellow activists would be delighted if the reports were true: “While we have never argued that Tara shouldn’t face some kind of sentence for her crime, we had hoped that she wouldn’t have to be punished twofold – once for what she did, the other for who she is.
“While we were devastated to see Tara sent back to the all-men’s prison, we were grateful to the judge for calling on the prison service to reconsider where she serves her sentence. It looks as though it may have had an effect.”
Brooklyn said she was disappointed that her daughter’s appeal for lenience had not been successful, but she took heart from the campaign which the case had inspired.
“I’m just hoping that it will make a difference to the transgender population in the future,” she said.
Ben Howlett, the MP for Bath and a member of parliament’s women and equalities select committee, said: “This afternoon we have heard from a source that Tara has been taken from court to an all-female prison.
“We will be pressing the Ministry of Justice for a formal line following this and work to ensure there is no repeat of this situation in future.
“We look forward to the outcome of the trans inquiry from the women and equalities select committee to ensure others are spared Tara’s ordeal.”