Saturday 21st July 2001

Sergeant will dress as a woman for a year before sex-swop

Policeman tells his colleagues: Call me Nicola

By Jonathan Irwin

HE has been a policeman for 26 years, and a sergeant for the past ten.

Yet when Christopher Lamb turns up for work now, his colleagues notice something decidedly different about the 6ft. officer.

For he is dressed as a woman - and is known as Nicola.

Sergeant Lamb, a divorced father of one is the first policeman to be publicly identified as a transsexual by their own force.

He began dressing as a woman on Monday and will spend the next 12 months as a ’transitional’ female before being considered for a sex-change operation, if he still wants it.

The 49-year-old appeared at a Press conference yesterday wearing makeup and dressed in a blouse and knee-length skirt with flat black shoes.  He had dyed his hair blonde.

He was accompanied by his boss North Yorkshire Chief Constable David Kenworthy, and the force’s ’diversity adviser’ Kathy Anderson who both referred to Sergeant Lamb as ’she’.

Miss Anderson said the sergeant who smiled through the Press conference but refused to answer any questions, has the medical condition Gender Dysphoria, which affects one in 10,000 men in Britain.

She also revealed that North Yorkshire police employs another transsexual - a probationary constable who changed sex five years ago - and that there are, two in the Essex force.

Mr Kenworthy said his force’s policy was to nurture ’talented people who have gone through change and yet are still giving fantastic service’.

He added: ’We celebrate diversity in North Yorkshire police and this is not an issue for us.  We are happy to employ people who will be good policeofficers and support staff.’

But he was less willing to discuss another reason for calling the Press conference - a Sunday newspaper is to run a story about Sergeant Lamb.

Miss Anderson said her colleague had first had misgivings about being a man in early childhood.

These feelings intensified in his teens and he battled with them through 30 years of marriage and raising a daughter, who is now in her late teens.

Finally, six months ago, as Sergeant Lamb’s ’amicable’ divorce was coming through, the officer who works in IT and radio communication at his force’s headquarters near Northallerton, approached Miss Anderson to tell her of his wish to become a woman.

She said he had the ’full backing’ of friends, family and colleagues, who had been ’very supportive’.

She added: ’It was a very difficult decision to make but Nicola has faced no discrimination from other officers.  They were briefed about the situation in the two weeks before Nicola came to work as a woman for the first time and during that time Nicola was given two weeks leave.

’She has met with the other transsexual officer and they through discussions, have been able to give each other vital support.’

Sergeant Lamb has previously worked as a beat officer and the Chief Constable confirmed he could return to this role in future.

Asked how the former Christopher Lamb felt having finally taken the first step to becoming a woman, Miss Anderson replied: ’It is a tremendous relief.’

Miss Anderson was then questioned on the practicalities of keeping Sergeant Lamb in his job.  Would the officer now be sharing locker rooms with female colleagues?

’People should use the facilities that are of the given gender after transition,’ she answered.

Immediately playing down the issue, she added: ’Nicola and her colleagues are not in a position where they have to change at work.’

But asked later whether they would be sharing other facilities such as toilets a force spokesman said: ’That kind of thing is still being looked at.’

Last night Sergeant Lamb’s former wife Christine, speaking in the doorway of the £120,000 modern detached house she had shared with him, said: ’I wish my ex-husband well.  Anybody would in my position.’

j.irwin@dailymail.co.uk

Copyright © 2001, Daily Mail