Killer Wants Sex Change
[AUSTRALIA] - A MURDERER who shot dead his neighbour wants taxpayers to finance hormone therapy because he claims he is a woman trapped in a man's body.
Michelle Amanda Challoner, formerly Michael Joseph Challoner, was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years' jail in 1999 for shooting his neighbour through the neck.
Yesterday, Challoner, 36, claimed discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, because prisons have refused to give him female hormones and have forced him to shower with men.
He calls himself a transsexual woman suffering gender dysphoria, papers at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal show.
Challoner claims a genetic woman with a hormone problem would get taxpayer-funded hormone therapy in jail and would be spared communal male showers.
He says any male prisoner who regarded himself as male would also get "reasonable medical care and treatment prescribed for them".
Challoner also claims discrimination on the basis of physical features, because he has a penis.
"It is my male genitalia which is the feature that has contributed to discrimination," he wrote.
Challoner claims to have been singled out for poor treatment because the feminine appearance hormone therapy will create may endanger him in a men's jail.
He believes he has been treated unfairly because the State Government could be liable for his sex-change surgery if it starts in jail.
The killer has levelled his complaint against former correctional services commissioner Penny Armytage, the Justice Department, a former Ararat prison officer and Human Services Department psychiatrist Dr Ruth Vine.
Challoner's representative, Karen Gurney, told the tribunal yesterday he has a very strong desire that Ms Armytage "be made accountable for the decisions she made".
He is described in a psychological report given to the tribunal as slim and willowy and a two out of 10 on a feminine-looks scale.
Challoner saw himself as a woman at the time of his murder trial but kept it secret to avoid confusion, another psychiatric report given to the tribunal says.
He is due for parole in April 2010.
