Police charge
mother who
claimed that
trans woman
was a man
POLICE have charged a mother
with trolling after she referred to a
transgender woman as a man.
When Kate Scottow was arrested
in December, Boris Johnson criti-
cised the move as an ‘abuse of man-
power and police facilities’.
But now Mrs Scottow, 38, will face
magistrates on charges of making
malicious communications over
social media comments about trans
campaigner Stephanie Hayden.
The Crown Prosecution Service said
she had been charged over ‘persistent’
messages designed to cause ‘annoy-
ance, inconvenience or needless
anxiety’ to another person between
September 2018 and May 2019
Three officers arrested Mrs Scot-
tow at her home in Hitchin, Hertford-
shire, in December last year as her
then ten-year-old daughter and
20-month-old son looked on.
She was taken to a police station
where she says she was detained in
a cell for up for seven hours before
being questioned.
After details of Mrs Scottow’s case
were revealed in The Mail on Sunday
in February, Mr Johnson criticised
her arrest when violent crime is on
the rise. Writing in a newspaper col-
umn, Mr Johnson, then a backbenchTory MP, asked: ‘Is this really the
right way to fight crime? Is this what
our brave police officers signed up
to do? Are you really telling me that it
is a sensible ordering of priorities,
when violence on the streets would
seem to be getting out of control?’
Last night, a CPS spokesman said
the charge against Mrs Scottow
had been authorised on August 21
‘after reviewing a file of evidence
from Hertfordshire Police relating
to social media posts’.
She is due to appear at Stevenage
Magistrates’ Court on September 18.
Her case comes six months after
Britain’s first transgender hate crime
prosecution was halted by a judge
who declared: ‘There is no case and
never was a case.’
Miranda Yardley, 51, said she was
put through ten months of hell after
being accused of harassing a trans-
gender activist on Twitter.
But District Judge John Woollard
dismissed the case after a one-day
hearing at Basildon Magistrates’
Court in Essex, saying there was no
evidence of a crime.By Sanchez Manning
Social affairS correSpondentDid this revealing shot of Helen Skelton sink her
chances of presenting swimming on the BBC?
HER daring outfits thrust
BBC sports presenter Helen
Skelton into the headlines during
the Rio Olympics, winning her
legions of fans.
But in an exclusive interview
with The Mail on Sunday’s Event
magazine today, she hints that
her thigh-skimming attire might
have cost her the chance to host
future coverage, after she was
axed from the BBC team at last
year’s Commonwealth Games.
Recalling the stir her choices
caused in 2016, the 36-year-old
says: ‘I just find it so hilarious
that after all this time,
everyone’s still talking about it.
‘Now the story’s evolved intosomething else. Like if I don’t
get a gig on sport it’s because
of the shorts. I did Rio and
then I did the Budapest World
Swimming Championships in
2017 and I haven’t done
anything else since. So...’
Asked if there is a link, she
replies: ‘I don’t know. Wouldn’t
that be amazing? They just said
to me they’ve got a responsibility
to bring on new talent.’ But shewas philosophical over the
decision saying: ‘If I wanted
to work in a fair industry I
should have worked at the
council. I work in an industry
where – as much as we say we
don’t – you get judged on your
hair colour, your accent, your
background, your skin colour.
‘Sometimes it works out for
you and sometimes it doesn’t.’
The mother-of-two has just
written a book, Wild Girl,
encouraging youngsters to
live adventurously.full interview in
49
By Padraic flanagan
September 1 • 2019 The Mail on Sunday^MAKING A SPLASH: Helen in the poolside studio at the 2016 OlympicsBBC
RELEASED BY "What's News" S vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws