Furious campaigners demanded reforms after transgender killer Scarlet Blake was recorded on police files as a woman.
The depraved murderer, who was jailed for life for killing a man in a warped sexual fantasy, remains formally classed as a female perpetrator.
Olympian Sharron Davies led calls for parties to make an election pledge that men who commit crimes cannot be recorded in official records as women.
She told the Daily Express: “I think crime stats are hugely important because we base legislation for safeguarding women and children on them. Like sport and medicine the reality of biology matters in crime statistics.
“I’ve been lobbying government in front and behind the scenes to get fairness for female athletes. The equality act must be clarified to stop sex discrimination.”
Transgender killer Scarlet Blake has been recorded as female by police (Image: PA)
Blake, 26, singled out Jorge Martin Carreno, 30, as he walked home from a night out in Oxford in July 2021, before brutally attacking him.
The killer led him to a secluded riverbank, where he was hit on the back of the head with a vodka bottle, strangled and then pushed into the River Cherwell, where he drowned.
It came four months after Blake live-streamed the sadistic killing of a cat.
Although Blake is being held in a male prison, Thames Valley Police confirmed the murderer will remain on its files as female forever.
Campaigners fear that information about crimes is being skewed because records are based on the gender an offender says they are rather than their biological sex.
Conservative MP Miriam Cates said: “When police record male offenders as females in official data they are falsifying important information.
“It’s essential that crime data is reliable, both for public trust and so that police can track patterns and trends. The public should not be misled – nor victims gaslit – by pretending that male sex offenders are women.”
Olympian Sharron Davies has called for a change in the rules (Image: Getty)
Downing Street insisted that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has always been “really clear” about the definition of a woman and believes biological sex matters.
A No 10 spokesman said that forces should follow the College of Policing’s guidance that a person’s gender is that which was registered at birth, unless they have been issued with a gender recognition certificate.
But a GRC does not require that the holder has had surgery, meaning they can still retain male genitalia despite being legally classed as a woman.
Conservative MP Nick Fletcher said: “To describe any violent male criminal as female insults all women. To record male criminals as female in official crime statistics makes a mockery of those statistics and any research and analysis coming from them.
“It is a very dangerous trend we have fallen into, to disregard truth, and we must draw back from it.
“If that requires government legislation, so be it.”
Classing male defendants convicted of murder as female is terrible for the integrity of social statistics
It is also terrible for public understanding of murder and who commits murder
This deceit by public bodies and news organisations needs to be sorted out, and quickly
— Richard Garside (@RichardJGarside) February 29, 2024
Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said that classing trans offenders as women distorts records.
He said 3,041 defendants classed as male were convicted of murder over a ten-year period, 94% of all convictions, compared to 187 women.
“In reality it will be fewer than this, as there are likely some males hiding in the female data,” he said.
“This is why it matters when male defendants convicted of murder are classed as female.
“Because so few female defendants are convicted of murder, any male murder conviction classed as female dramatically distorts the female murder convictions data.
“Class just one male convicted of murder as female, then total annual female murder convictions go up by around 5%
“Class five males convicted of murder as female, then total annual female murder convictions go up by around 25%.”
A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: “Scarlet Blake’s gender did not form any part of the prosecution case, which was also highlighted by the judge presiding over the case.
“It has always been our absolute priority to convict the person responsible for Jorge Martin Carreno’s murder, and achieve justice for his family, which has now been done.
“Our thoughts remain with the family of Mr Martin Carreno who have shown immense dignity throughout.
“Thames Valley Police adheres to the law and codes of practice, outlined by the Equality Act 2010, and the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) code C, when establishing and recording the gender of a person in our custody.
“We are required to record the gender of individuals when they are brought into our custody. “Blake identified as a female when in custody, as such Blake is recorded as female on our crime recording system.”
