A young woman who was sexually abused as a child by her father was appalled to discover the attacker is due to be released after barely seven years in jail.
And she was astonished to hear that her father was now identifying as a woman and using the name Claire Fox.
Ceri-Lee Galvin, 24, was abused for nine years from the age of eight by Clive Bundy. Bundy was jailed for 15 years in 2016 but is now due for parole.
She has bravely chosen to waive her anonymity as a sexual abuse victim to raise awareness of a ‘legal loophole’ that potentially allows sex attackers like her father to cover up their past by adopting a new gender identity.
Ceri-Lee remembers being stunned by the revelation two years ago about her abusive father – who she remembers as ‘ultra-masculine’.
The victim liaison officer went on to tell Ceri-Lee that the only reason she was being informed about the name and gender change was because her father had given permission for this to happen.
The implication was that if her father had chosen not to tell her of the transition, she would have had no idea that Claire Fox was actually her abuser if the attacker had decided to contact her using the new name.
‘By being allowed to keep his change of identity a secret if he so wishes, my father Clive Bundy is being permitted to divorce himself and his name from the heinous crimes he committed against me,’ she says.
‘I was abused as a child by a man who now identifies as a woman and I only know because he allowed them to tell me. It’s just appalling that his right to privacy seems to over-rule any rights I have as a victim.’
Women’s rights activists have already raised concerns about the ease with which violent male criminals can self-identify as a woman – and recent cases have highlighted the issue.
A rapist who carried out sexual attacks as a man named Adam Graham in 2016 and 2019 sparked a heated debate earlier this year after changing gender and name to Isla Bryson while waiting to stand trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
