Transgender woman Melissa Yarnold says her fight has been worthwhile and she feels there has been accountability, after settling a discrimination and sexual harassment complaint against NSW Police, Corrective Services NSW and Justice Health NSW. But more needs to be done to make the NSW criminal legal system safe for trans and gender diverse people.
‘Nobody should have to go through what I went through,’ says Melissa. ‘I was so traumatised by the whole experience. I didn’t see me as me. It was hell on earth and it’s taken me a long time with counsellors to get over that trauma.’
‘I want my story and complaint to improve the system.’
The Justice and Equity Centre represented Melissa in the complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission, which has settled on confidential terms.
Melissa was arrested in February 2020, following a family dispute. She was held in custody on remand for ten weeks, including several weeks in a men’s prison, before being transferred to a psychiatric hospital after her mental health seriously deteriorated. When she finally went to trial, Melissa was released with no conviction, subject to a mental health plan.
When Melissa was charged, she repeatedly asked police to use her correct pronouns, current ID and legal name, which she had changed four years earlier. Despite laws against gender identity discrimination, the police refused.
Melissa says she was also taunted and sexually harassed by police officers, leaving her humiliated, intimidated and mentally traumatised.
‘Trans people have a right to be seen as their real gender. But that wasn’t accepted. Bigotry, discrimination and misunderstanding fuelled the police, and I was made to feel completely powerless. Once the discrimination started with the police, it followed through to the court system.’
Melissa appeared unrepresented at her first court appearance, where she was processed using her former name (‘dead name’) and former gender, and was denied bail.
Documents show that throughout the ten-weeks she was held by NSW Corrections, she clearly communicated her female gender and asked to be referred to as Melissa. NSW Corrections’ policies require people in custody to be dealt with according to their identified gender, but Corrections staff continued to use her former name and referred to her as male.
During her time in custody, Melissa was:
- verbally abused when she requested that a female officer undertake a required strip search, and was forced to be strip searched by a male officer;
- held in a male prison for several weeks;
- sexually harassed and intimidated by male inmates;
- only sporadically provided with Hormone Replacement Therapy (‘HRT’) medication, despite having been on HRT for four years leading up to her arrest; and
- denied access to women’s clothing, despite repeated requests.
‘When I went into the prison intake system, they yelled at me and told me I was a man. They told me they’d do whatever they wanted and I’d do whatever they say. I was so scared. I didn’t feel like I had the right to say my name was Melissa Yarnold even though that was my legal name. I had no right to be a woman.’
‘At first I was in a women’s prison but I was held in isolation, supposedly to keep me safe. After a few weeks, I applied to go to a jail where I could get some mental health support because I was becoming very mentally unwell. They transferred me to Silverwater, where they classified me as a man and put me in the men’s prison. The corrections officers humiliated me in front of the other inmates, called me a grub, a man, sir, he. And they put my former name on my cell.’
‘Then it was just constant, full-on abuse from the inmates who were carrying on the intimidation they’d heard from the officers, abusing me in a few cases and threatening me 24/7. I went into full-on survival mode where it didn’t matter what they were doing to me. I had no feelings. I had no coping skills.’
After Melissa’s mental health seriously deteriorated, she was transferred to a psychiatric hospital before being released on bail.
Jonathon Hunyor, CEO of the Justice and Equity Centre, says the criminal justice system failed Melissa.
‘Under Australian law, a person shouldn’t be subjected to sexual harassment or discrimination because of their gender, including when they are dealing with the criminal legal system.’
‘There is also a formal policy requiring Corrections staff to deal with people in custody in line with their identified gender. This includes in relation to where they are accommodated, how they are searched and the clothes they are given.’
‘Melissa suffered immense distress and harm because police and corrections staff breached their own policies and failed to respond to her legitimate requests that they recognise her gender and use her legal name.’
‘Police refused to treat Melissa with decency and respect. By deliberately misgendering and deadnaming her, they set off cascading discriminatory treatment based on her gender.’
‘Melissa’s case shows that the way police treat people encountering the criminal justice system often determines what follows. Police have to do much more to engage with LGBTIQ+ communities to ensure their responses are safe for LGBTIQ+ people.’
‘This case needs to be understood against the backdrop of a long history of violence and oppression targeting trans and gender diverse people, and the present-day threats of violence they regularly face.’
Media contact: Media and Communications Manager, Dan Buhagiar: 0478 739 280
