Killer given legal aid for sex change
By Paul Stokes
A CONVICTED murderer serving two life sentences has been granted legal aid worth thousands of pounds in his fight to have a sex change operation.
Doug Wakefield, 49 - who answers only to the name of Dee - is also mounting a legal action that would allow him to apply for a transfer from Frankland Prison, Durham, to a women’s jail.
Wakefield was jailed for life at Leeds Crown Court in 1974 for the murder of his uncle, Derek Wakefield. Four years later he strangled and stabbed a fellow inmate at Parkhurst Prison’s psychiatric wing.
Maddy Rees, Wakefield’s lawyer, claims that the killings were directly related to Wakefield’s condition. She said: “Her [Wakefield’s] uncle was taunting her about her transsexual situation when she snapped. No one would do anything to help her; society stood by and did nothing.
“She was granted legal aid to seek advice and look into whether she had legal points to bring a case. We hope she can be treated with hormones and possibly surgery. We believe that the prison service has a duty to carry out this treatment.”
13 June 1996: Transsexual to challenge surgery ban
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