The Sunday Mail	Sunday October 31, 1999

Meet **** *******… The 6ft 2in Transsexual Who Sits In Judgment On Our Kids

A SEX-CHANGE father, who has been disowned by his former wife and three daughters, is sitting in judgment on young offenders.

Blonde **** ******* - who was born Warwick Bryden Strange - was still a man when he was appointed to his local Children’s Panel.

The 6ft 2in former hotel manager has since undergone surgery and now steps out wearing heavy make-up and long skirts with thigh-high splits.

Ms *******, 45, is still meting out advice and punishment to children who have got into trouble.

Church leaders and fellow panel members have expressed their disquiet.

And last night, ex-wife Susan Simpson led calls for her to be removed.

She said: “He couldn’t spend time with his own daughters and had absolutely no concern for their feelings or well-being.

“Now he’s making important decisions about the welfare of other people’s children - that cannot be right.”

Susan, a hairdresser from Torrie, Aberdeenshire, met Warwick in the early 1980s when he was working in the Palm Court Hotel in Aberdeen.

They got married in 1984 at Bourtreebush Parish Church, Cammachmore, near Stonehaven.

Within four years, they had three children, all girls, and were living a happy family life at Auchinblae in the foothills of the Cairngorms.

However, the couple separated in 1993 and a year later Warwick told his wife and daughters that he had been dressing up in women’s clothes.

Susan said: “The following Easter he got cards printed with his new name, ****, and burst the bombshell that he had decided to become a woman.

She said that even with the benefit of hindsight, she had no idea in the final months of their marriage that her husband was already cross-dressing.

“It was something that came totally out of the blue after we had separated.

Ours was just another marriage that broke down.  There was no one else involved in the split.”

And with a rare smile, Susan conceded: “He was a good-looking fellow.”

She added: “As far as I was concerned he had opted out of marriage and family life.  He never ill-treated the girls, but he never had anything to do with them.  As far as he was concerned, that was my job.

“He never spent time with them - he virtually ignored them.  Ironically, it was only after we separated that he took them places.

“He used to have them over to his house, but since the sex change they have had no contact with him.

“That is their decision.  They could phone him or write if they wanted but none of us has been in contact with him for three years, except through our lawyers.”

Susan agreed to open her heart to speak of the agonies that she and her daughters have been through.

But she asked us not to name the girls in the hope that it might give them some protection from the latest controversy to engulf their sex-swap father.

Susan said: “I still insist to this day that if he cared in the slightest about the girls he would have moved to England.

“But it’s me that’s been forced to move away to try and protect my daughters from hurtful comments and pointing fingers.

“We have all suffered a lot of stress and have been to Hell and back fighting a prolonged battle trying to cope with what has happened.

“I was amazed when I discovered he was going through the process of becoming a Children’s Panel member.”

Susan’s former husband now lives alone in a sea-view cottage in Lauriston, four miles north of Montrose.  She drives a black, two-seater, soft-top Mazda convertible and commutes to work in Montrose, where she is an office manageress in a laundry.

Her secluded cottage home is on the market with a “for sale” sign at the end of the long driveway, but she refused to talk about her devastated family or discuss her membership of the Children’s Panel.

She said: “I’m a private person and don’t want to say anything.”

In 1994, when the then Warwick Strange first applied for a panel job, he was still living his life as a man.

Yesterday, the Reverend William Wallace, former convener of the Church of Scotland’s social responsibility committee, said: “In the light of the new circumstances the Children’s Panel Advisory Committee should take a long, hard look at this.

“It’s essential they take cognisance of the views of other panel members.

“Every panel should have a good cross-section of caring members of the community.

“But it seems in this case that the man has enough problems of his own without advising on others.”

Several panel members who sit with Ms ******* are horrified that their bosses have approved her continued membership despite the sex change.

One of them, who did not want to be named, said it was an intolerable situation which was undermining their authority.

He added: “Most of the children we deal with are streetwise and very quick on the uptake.

“No amount of make-up or female clothes and accessories can hide obvious masculine features.  Many members have spoken of their concerns and the obvious difficulty of working in the uneasy atmosphere that has been created.”

But Aberdeenshire Council, who confirmed they were aware of ****’s sex change operation, defended the decision to retain her services.

A spokeswoman said: “The competence of all members of the Children’s Panel is monitored by the Children’s Panel Advisory Committee.

“The CPAC make recommendations about individual members to the Scottish Executive and **** ******* is classed as a good and competent panel member.

”****has been a panel member since 1994 and the Scottish Office previously, and now the Scottish Executive, are aware of the situation.”

The Scottish Children’s Panel Reporters Administration said anyone with a complaint about ****’s membership should take it to the CPAC.

Their spokeswoman said: “Panel members are appointed on the recommendation of a local advisory committee.

“The performance of panel members is closely monitored to ensure they are dealing properly with the cases of children who come before them.

“Any complaints or concerns about panel members should be brought to the attention of CPAC.

“In a children’s hearing, the Reporter acts as an independent adviser on law and procedures.

“They do not have the power to appoint panel members any more than a procurator fiscal has the power to appoint a sheriff.”

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