The family of a murder victim has criticised prison bosses for agreeing to send a killer inmate to a Brighton hospital for gender reassignment surgery.
Paris Green, 27, is due to have the NHS-funded surgery at the private Nuffield Hospital, in Warren Road, Woodingdean.
Green, who was born Peter Laing, was jailed five years ago for at least 18 years for torturing and sexually assaulting 45-year-old Robert Shankland before beating him to death.
According to national newspaper reports, Green will be brought from Edinburgh Prison to Brighton for surgery estimated to cost taxpayers up to £60,000.
Green is reported to have identified as a woman since 2011 but twice been removed from the women’s wings of prisons after having sex with female inmates.
The gender reassignment surgery was approved on the grounds of the killer’s physical and mental wellbeing and is said to include a two-week spell of recuperation.
This was reported to be a costly “security nightmare” by one newspaper which described Green as someone who posed a risk of escape – and who would be kept under 24-hour watch while at the Nuffield.
The family of victim, Robert Shankland, 45, were said to be furious with the Prison Service for “jumping through hoops” to cater for the killer’s human rights, claiming that they should have been forfeited on being convicted of murder.
The Daily Mail reported an “experienced prison officer” as saying: “Most of the people I’ve discussed this matter with think it’s outrageous.
“You can murder someone brutally but while you are in prison you are entitled to everything you ask for, no matter the burden on a stretched system, because it might breach your human rights to say no. What about the rights of the victim and his family?”
The newspaper quoted Mr Shankland’s sister Pauline Bell, 46, as saying: “What she did was awful. She should not be getting the operation on the NHS. It’s not lifesaving treatment.
“She took somebody’s life away and destroyed a family. She destroyed my mum’s life and now she is being given this treatment so she can feel better?
“The Prison Service says it’s about human rights – but she took away someone’s human rights in the worst possible way.”
