A recent tweet shared on X (formerly Twitter) by the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has stirred controversy as it contained misinformation about the gender identity of a biologically male convicted paedophile involved in the sexual abuse of a 4-year-old.
GMP had turned off the ability to comment on the post, potentially signalling pre-existing acknowledgement of the misinformation, and pre-empting expected backlash from the public.
In their controversial tweet, the GMP tweet initially suggested that “a man and a woman” were jailed and “sentenced to a combined 16 years and 9 months in prison for their roles in the sexual abuse of a child”.
The police named the individuals as 31-year-old “woman” Naomi O’Brien, of Ashton-under-Lyne, and 33-year-old Jonathan Walker of Pontsticill, Merthyr Tydfil. The GMP failed to mention O’Brien is transgender.
The courts imprisoned O’Brien for a total of 4 years and 3 months in prison, with a 4-year and 4-month Sexual Harm Prevention Order and Sex Offender Notification Requirements for life, and Walker received 12-and-a-half years in prison, on the 8th of December 2023.
The investigation found that both O’Brien and Walker are paedophiles and that O’Brien encouraged Walker to sexually abuse a 4-year-old boy on multiple occasions. It is currently unclear if O’Brien has been locked up in a male or female prison.
However, despite the GMP and the British courts referring to O’Brien as a woman, it was revealed that Twitter users that O’Brien was a biological male who has a penis, as advertised in his “escort service”.
The tweet received over 2000 ‘quote tweets’, with the vast majority questioning the GMP’s labelling of O’Brien as a woman.
The escapade prompted widespread outrage and comments from political pundits across the globe. Riley Gaines, a US women’s swimming athlete, who had previously tied with transgender woman Lia Thomas in fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle race at the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, voiced her concern for the situation.
“Thank God for community notes, although no one believed for a second this was a woman”, Gaines tweeted.
“They should be imprisoned for life at the very least. Sickening”, Gaines continued.
Former Trade Union representative Paul Embery, who was cancelled from his union for supporting Brexit also weighed in on the case.
“It’s a man. Greater Manchester police know it’s a man. Everyone knows it’s a man. That’s why they have disabled replies to the tweet. Stop blaming women for the sex crimes of men”, Embery insisted.
“How can we trust you: Greater Manchester Police, Andy Burnham (Manchester’s Mayor), and Kate Green (Manchester’s Deputy Mayor For Policing Crime and Fire), when you call a man, convicted of sexual activities in front of a child a woman?”, chimed in women’s rights activist Maya Forstater.
“His [the transgender individual’s] own publicity videos for his escort service show his erect penis”, Forstater said.
“This is a man who tries to pass himself off as a woman as a sexual fetish, convicted of encouraging and assisting child sexual abuse. Why are police indulging this man’s fantasy?”, Forstater continued.
Former Conservative London Mayoral candidate and ex-MP Zac Goldsmith said, “Two men – not a man & woman – committed these revolting crimes. The police are gaslighting us all, as ever”.
Even Rabbi Svi Solomans questioned the GMP’s handling of the news saying, “They were both male. If they’re criminal then you have to ignore their pronouns. It’s a matter of our safety”.
Of course, alongside widespread condemnation of the police for their misinformation, and the two paedophiles, some supporters of the trans-community seemed more concerned with ‘misgendering’ over the crimes committed, and the potential danger of labelling a biologically male paedophile as a woman.
“Not everyone being transphobic….She’s a woman….A female criminal end of, there needs to be an image of the male criminal also”, said one trans-activist.
“Unsurprising @gmpolice glossed over the cis male who sexually abused an innocent child & got 12.5 years of the 16 years 9 months handed out to the two paedophiles but did name & use the photo of Naomi O’Brien”, said another.
“The quote tweets are more concerned with this paedophile’s birth sex than the fact that it’s a f*cking paedophile”, said one.
“Can people please stop capitalising off of sex offences to push a point?”, he continued.
While some used Twitter’s fact-checking service, ‘community notes’ to highlight the biological sex of the perpetrator, some trans-activists became more incensed about this than the actual crime.
“Anti-trans activists have recently decided to brigade Twitter/X’s community notes feature to promote their bigotry. Down-rate such notes when you see them as incorrect, irrelevant, and harassment”, said one enraged user.
Others used the community notes service to label others as ‘transphobic’.
The combination of Twitter’s community notes and the disabling of comments highlights the increasing role of online communities and social media platforms in holding organizations accountable for the accuracy and transparency of their public communications. This incident serves as a reminder of the challenges and responsibilities that come with navigating polarising subjects in the digital age.
