Police reopen probe into trans activist after she told crowd ‘punch TERFs in the face’: Met reviews Trans Pride speech made by convicted attempted murderer turned campaigner who cut off her own testicles while serving 30 years in jail
- **EXCLUSIVE**
The Met today reopened its investigation into a transgender activist and convicted attempted murderer who told activists at a London march to ‘punch TERFs’ in the face.
Sarah Jane Baker, whose spent 30 years in jail for kidnap and then the attempted murder of a fellow prisoner, provoked outrage over her inflammatory comments on Saturday against feminists who are critical of trans ideology.
She told the cheering crowd on Saturday: ‘I was gonna come here and be really fluffy and be really nice and say yeah be really lovely and queer and gay… Nah, if you see a TERF, punch them in the f****** face.’
Astonishingly, Baker was defended by the organisers of Trans+ Pride, who said Baker ‘holds a lot of anger’ which she had the ‘right to express… through their words’.
She was reported to the police for inciting violence, but a Met officer told a complainant that it was not in the public interest to pursue the case. They said the call for violence was ‘hypothetical’ and allowed under free speech laws.
However, the Met has since confirmed to MailOnline that the crime report has now been reopened and ‘enquiries remain ongoing’.
Sarah Jane Baker provoked outrage for her inflammatory comments at the rally in London on Saturday
Baker – pictured prior to transitioning – was originally jailed for kidnapping and torturing her stepmother’s brother
A Met spokesman said: ‘We are aware of a video filmed in Westminster on Saturday, 8 July showing a speaker making remarks during the Trans Pride event.
‘We have received a number of reports in relation to the video. The case was initially closed with no further action.
‘This has been reviewed and the crime report has been re-opened. Enquiries remain ongoing.’
‘I hated my body and I reached out to the staff and said to them, ”if you don’t help me, I will help myself”, and they just laughed,’ she remembered.
‘I said, ”I will remove my own testicles, that’s what I’ll do”… I am genuinely a person of my word, if I tell you I’m going to do something then I’m going to do it.
‘I’ve also been diagnosed with a personality disorder and one of my risk factors is being impulsive. It was an impulsive decision that I made to take a prison razor blade at 2 o’clock in the morning and to remove my own testicles.’
She admitted that this had been an incredibly ‘dangerous’ decision, but said it had felt ‘important’.
Baker admitted to getting involved in drug dealing, phone smuggling and sex work while behind bars.
Baker (pictured) was one of the speakers at the Trans+ Pride event in London yesterday and used her speech to call for violence against those critical of trans ideology. She told the crowd: ‘I was gonna come here and be really fluffy and be really nice and say yeah be really lovely and queer and gay… Nah, if you see a TERF, punch them in the f****** face’
Baker in February this year at a vigil for Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old trans girl who was stabbed to death
Speaking to the Daily Mirror from inside prison, she complained about being a target for violence after announcing her decision to become a woman. Prison is brutal and it’s all about being the hardest and the most macho,’ she said.
‘If you tell a member of staff you feel threatened, nothing will happen until you are beaten up.
‘People are not well educated or liberal in the way they think in jail and the rules are outdated.’
Baker was released in 2019 after being being given oestrogen hormones by the authorities and undergoing a controversial £10,000 taxpayer-funded sex change operation.
Baker learned to read and write in prison and eventually wrote a book: Transgender Behind Prison Walls.
She now campaigns on trans issues – sometimes appearing topless at marches – and is also a supporter of eco groups Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain.
The self-declared ‘transanarchist’ has also announced her intention to run to become MP for Richmond at the next election.
Her activism has included setting up the Transprisoner Alliance which organisers visits to trans people behind bars and provides them with clothes, make-up and legal assistance.
She has also been active in calling for trans people to be moved into a prison that accords with their chosen gender.
Labour MP Lloyd Russell Moyle prepares to speak at a protest at Downing Street on January 18 where Baker (left) was in attendance. Later the MP said he had not known who the activist was
During a 2019 interview with the i, Baker – was previously called Alan Baker – described how she had been born in Brixton before growing up as one of 14 kids in a ‘really good’ Georgian house in Norwood.
She said her father became abusive after losing his business and ‘tortured everyone around him, including my mum, and later on, my step-mums’.
Baker recalled how she went into care before occasionally fleeing and working as an underage male prostitute.
The Trans+ Pride event yesterday saw thousands march through London in what they referred to as the ‘biggest-ever’ call for Trans rights.
Baker took to the stage wearing a red beret – which she is often seen with in public – and holding an Antifa flag.
Her call to punch feminists in the face was widely condemned on social media.
Echoing these criticisms, Labour MP Clive Lewis wrote: ‘Advocating violence against others is wrong & this is no exception. But as you’ll be aware violent language and actions are not unique to one side on this issue.
‘That doesn’t justify the above in any way, but it does require we acknowledge the general toxicity & step back from it.’
Alice Sullivan, a professor of sociology at University College London, replied to Mr Lewis saying: ‘Male violence against women and girls is not a ‘both sides’ issue. There are simply no examples of feminists issuing these kinds of violent threats.
‘Every time women organise to discuss our rights we are faced with abuse. It shouldn’t be hard to condemn that unequivocally.’
She also called on Mr Lewis to provide an example of feminists ‘behaving like this’.
However, a London Trans Pride spokesman said: ‘Sarah and many others in our community hold a lot of rage and anger and they have the right to express that anger through their words.
‘We do not condone violence, we do not back a call to arms for violence of any kind. We do condone righteous anger and the right to the free speech that was expressed yesterday. We have and will continue to march in peace.’
TERF is the acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist, a term often used to refer to critics of trans ideology.
Before Baker’s speech, Trans activists and supporters had walked past Piccadilly and Trafalgar Square with signs for the worldwide Pride celebration.
The Trans+ Pride event yesterday saw thousands march through London in what they referred to as the ‘biggest-ever’ call for Trans rights
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