A rapist who started identifying as a woman after the attack and was referred to as ‘she’ in court was yesterday sentenced to six and a half years in a men’s prison.

Lexi Secker, 35, wept as a judge said he had ‘regard to how difficult a prison sentence in a male institution will be’. 

Wiltshire Police faced criticism last month after refusing to specify the defendant’s biological sex, saying ‘the crime was recorded as being committed by a male’, but Secker went on trial ‘as a woman’.

Judge Jason Taylor told Swindon Crown Court the attack was perpetrated by a man ‘clearly attracted to women’ who was focused on ‘sexual gratification’ after luring an intoxicated woman to a secluded woodland spot in Wiltshire.

The judge told Secker: ‘You now identify as a woman and are attracted to men. At the time of this offence, you were a man. 

'You identified as a man and you were, on the evidence, clearly attracted to women.’

A police statement in June said that 'at the time of the offence Secker was living as a man' and the crime was 'recorded as being committed by a male'.

But the statement also said Secker went on trial 'as a woman' and referred to the rapist as 'a person'.

Fiona McAnena, of the charity Sex Matters, said at the time: 'This person is a man. Why don't the police say so? Do they think they have to pretend, because he now says he's a woman, even though he has committed the ultimate male crime of rape?

'It is very concerning to see the police pandering to the feelings of trans-identifying males. It does not give confidence that they are policing without fear or favour.'