Disabled campaigner for women's rights is arrested for 'hate crime'

Women’s rights campaigner is arrested for a ‘hate crime’ after she put up ‘transphobic’ posters with slogans including ‘no men in women’s prisons’

  • Jennifer Swayne, 53, was arrested on Sunday afternoon in Newport, Wales
  • She was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and abusive writing
  • Gwent police received complaints of ‘offensive’ material put up around the town
  • Swayne was accused of spreading ‘anti-transgender and hurtful’ messages
  • But she has argued the stickers and posters were simply in support of women
  • A free-speech organisation has offered to provide Swayne with legal aid 

A women’s rights campaigner who put up stickers and posters in Newport, Wales, has been arrested by police for ‘criminal damage’ and ‘abusive writing’ after people allegedly complained that her posters carried an ‘anti-transgender message’.

Jennifer Swayne, 53, was arrested on Sunday afternoon and detained until the early hours of the morning, while police officers executed a search warrant on her property and confiscated women’s rights stickers and a book containing a collection of critical essays about the theory and practice of transgendering children.

Some of the stickers and posters put up by Swayne carried feminist messages decrying violence against women, but others which bore phrases such as ‘no men in women’s prisons’ and ‘humans never change sex’ were reported as being offensive. 

Gwent police released a statement earlier this week alleging they had received complaints about the ‘offensive messages’ over a period of several months and that the posters contained ‘abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress’.

Swayne meanwhile took to social media to argue that her messages were not anti-trans but pro-women and alleged that her ‘thinking was being investigated’ rather than her actions.

Fair Cop, an organisation which campaigns against the criminalisation of free speech, has since volunteered to support Swayne with any legal proceedings that arise, The Times reports.

Jennifer Swayne, 53, was arrested on Sunday afternoon and detained until the early hours of the morning, while police officers executed a search warrant on her property and confiscated women’s rights stickers and a book containing a collection of critical essays about the theory and practice of transgendering children

Swayne meanwhile took to social media to argue that her messages were not anti-trans but pro-women. She later alleged that her ‘thinking was being investigated’ rather than her actions

Some of the stickers and posters put up by Swayne carried feminist messages decrying violence against women, but others which bore phrases such as ‘no men in women’s prisons’ and ‘humans never change sex’ were reported as being offensive

Fair Cop, an organisation which campaigns against the criminalisation of free speech, has since volunteered to support Swayne with any legal proceedings that arise

Some of the stickers and posters made by Swayne were emblazoned with phrases such as ‘no child is born in the wrong body, humans never change sex’, ‘Woman = Adult Human Female’ and ‘Are you happy for your 13-year-old daughter to shower next to an adult man, yes or no?’. 

Gwent police on Tuesday released a statement explaining the circumstances surrounding the arrest.

Superintendent Vicki Townsend said: ‘We’ve received several reports in relation to posters containing offensive material appearing in Newport between October and January.

‘Officers on patrol in Newport saw a woman spraying stickers to two lampposts.

‘A 53-year-old woman from Newport was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and displaying threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress.  

Police said they received six complaints of ‘offensive messages’ posted by Swayne on Sunday and were therefore compelled to investigate. 

Swayne meanwhile took to Twitter to rail against the police for the arrest and to refute claims that she had published ‘transphobic’ messages.

‘Yesterday Sunday 23rd/01/22 I was arrested for hate crime. Gwent police saw me as an exceptional threat to the T community by posting stickers and posters that did not mention T once. They were feminist in content and, I felt, pleasingly informative to women and concerned.’

Swayne, who suffers from bipolar disorder, went on to argue that the police’s decision to confiscate a book concerning transgendering children amounted to policing thoughts over actions. 

‘When my house was raided, it has come to my attention that a BOOK was taken by the police. A book edited by Heather Brunskell-Evans on GC children. It was crammed with my notes. MY THINKING IS BEING INVESTIGATED- not things, not materials, not actions my actual thinking.’

The book, ‘Transgender Children and Young People: Born in Your Own Body’, is a collection of essays critiquing the theory and practice of transgendering children, edited by Dr Heather Brunskell-Evans. 

A social theorist and long-time women’s rights advocate, Brunskell-Evans has been critical of the rise of gender identity politics, particularly as it pertains to young adults and children. 

Swayne tweeted: ‘When my house was raided, it has come to my attention that a BOOK was taken by the police. A book edited by Heather Brunskell-Evans on GC children. It was crammed with my notes. MY THINKING IS BEING INVESTIGATED- not things, not materials, not actions my actual thinking.’ The book, ‘Transgender Children and Young People: Born in Your Own Body’, is a collection of essays critiquing the theory and practice of transgendering children, edited by Dr Heather Brunskell-Evans

Some of the stickers allegedly posted by Jennifer Swayne

Some social media users accused Swayne for being disingenuous about her social activism and said she was rightly arrested for her actions.

One user wrote: ‘I feel you’re being dishonest about the content and the implications you were making and policies you are doing activism around,’ while another simply commented: ‘So, you were arrested for vandalism.’

But many users leapt to Swayne’s defence and said the police had overstepped the mark. 

‘Is there no real crime going on in Gwent?,’ one user wrote. ‘How did they get a warrant to search your home? What on earth did they tell the magistrate you’d done? I’m absolutely gobsmacked by this, and raging on your behalf.’

Meanwhile, free speech organisation Fair Cop accused Gwent police of ‘unlawful interference’, and declared it would provide Swayne with legal aid in the case.

Fair Cop’s Harry Miller told The Times that the posters that Swayne put up around the Welsh town were a ‘political statement’ that did not come near the criminal threshold.

The organisation’s Twitter account addressed a message to Gwent police yesterday, declaring ‘we have our legal team in place. We will be setting up a donation platform in the next few days. In the meantime, we have paid costs and will be bringing our A Team. You picked on the wrong people.’

Swayne was released on conditional bail at 3:30am on Monday morning as investigations continue. 

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