No Pride in Prisons offers support following serious sexual assault
No Pride in Prisons Ōtepoti this week wishes to offer support to the alleged offender following a serious sexual assault on the 26th of June. The
alleged offender has been reported in media as a “man dressed as a woman.”
The offender was described as being Māori or Polynesian, wearing women’s clothing and having long hair. They allegedly
sexually assaulted “another man” on the morning of the 26th of June.
No Pride in Prisons Ōtepoti member Scout Barbour-Evans says, “Our organisation is incredibly concerned about potential backlash towards this person
from the Dunedin community.”
Barbour-Evans says, “We are also very conscious that transgender people face immense discrimination and violence in the
criminal justice system, so we are concerned for the safety of this person.”
“We are reluctant to assume anything about the gender identity or sexuality of this alleged offender, however due to the
nature of this sexual assault we are incredibly concerned for their safety in the prison system.”
No Pride in Prisons is a prison abolitionist group based in Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin. The group has been actively campaigning
around the treatment of transgender prisoners in New Zealand, as well as advocating for and supporting several
transgender people in New Zealand prisons.
Only last year it was found that a transgender woman had been raped as a result of double bunking in a New Zealand men’s prison. This year, No Pride in Prisons has heard from and
supported another transgender inmate who was brutally attacked while in Corrections’ custody.
No Pride in Prisons would like to offer its support to this alleged offender, though the organisation does not condone any acts of sexual
violence.
According to Barbour-Evans, “We believe in restorative justice and rehabilitation, and we do not believe the Department
of Corrections stands to provide either of these things. Locking away vulnerable people and members of minority groups
only puts those people at further risk of harm. Incarceration does not fix societal problems, it only works to
exacerbate them.”
ENDS