Sophie Eastwood, a trans prisoner who is serving life for the murder of cellmate Paul Algie, is claiming her rights were breached when a recording was made of her at Wishaw General Hospital
A trans killer claims her human rights were breached after a security guard secretly recorded her sharing a joke with a colleague.
Life prisoner Sophie Eastwood alleges the incident was an intrusion into her privacy and that of the guard. Since the recording was made the man she was joking with has been sacked and she is calling for him to be reinstated – while she also wants disciplinary action against the other guard.
Eastwood, 39, has been in Wishaw General Hospital, North Lanarkshire, since August last year because a fissure in her small intestine, caused by swallowing sharp objects as she struggled with her mental health leaving her unable to eat and drink normally.
She has been kept in hospital where Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), which gives her the nutrition she needs intravenously, has been administered to keep her alive while senior medics assess whether an operation might be possible.
GeoAmey, the company that manages prisoner transfers between jail and court and also hospital visits and stays, has had two guards with Eastwood, who is cuffed and chained to one of the guards, 24 hours a day.
Eastwood told the Daily Record: “As a prisoner, people have power over me and might find a way to punish me for speaking out, but this is so unfair I feel I have to.
“The guy who was suspended is very good at his job and is liked and respected by everyone, and all his colleagues are really gutted for him, but they can’t influence what happens to him. I’ve had a wide array of guards watching me over the past ten months or so, and he was one of the best.
“He is friendly while making it clear he is in charge and he has been with GeoAmey for many years. He was on duty on the night of May 21 into May 22 with a female colleague who I also thought I knew. Throughout her shift, she was nipping out for five, ten minutes, and I assumed it was toilet breaks or breaks to have a cigarette or a vape.
“But it turned out that she was leaving her mobile phone behind and, obviously without our knowledge or consent, was leaving it to record our conversations. We learned she had handed the recordings over to GeoAmey managers at the Bellshill headquarters. There was nothing that I recall that should have been a disciplinary matter.
“At one point, I think because we thought she was going out for a vape, we joked about a previous incident where I had my room and bathroom searched for vapes – I didn’t have any – and it was reported in the Record. It seems a guy with many years’ service, who is really good at his job, has been suspended for having a joke with a prisoner.”
It has long been established that covert recordings, even of active criminals planning an operation, are not legal and cannot be used as evidence in court without consent, or a warrant from a sheriff has allowed it in the public interest.
Eastwood said: “Nothing we discussed would have been of any interest to the public, and we didn’t know we were being recorded so how is this possible?”
She added that she knew the names of both security guards involved but was not sharing them out of respect for their privacy. Earlier this year Eastwood had her TPN withdrawn following a crisis in her mental health.
The unexpected death of her father led to her attempting to self-harm with scissors and a razor blade. She now awaits a decision on whether an operation that would allow her to eat normally might be attempted. If successful, this would see her returned to prison.
Eastwood is serving life for the murder of cellmate Paul Algie, 22, in 2004, in Dumfries Young Offenders Institution when she was just 18 and still living as Daniel Eastwood.
Eastwood was close to being released from prison for driving offences when she committed the murder, which she says she regrets every day and will regret until her own death. Ordered to serve a minimum 15 years at the High Court in Glasgow, she has now served more than 20.
If an operation were successful, she would almost certainly be returned to Glenochil Prison, where she became seriously unwell after being moved back to the male estate having spent many years among female prisoners.
This followed the farce at the start of last year around the rapist Adam Graham, who declared while facing two rape charges that he was transitioning to female and wanted to be known as Isla Bryson and serve his sentence in a female jail.
The political fallout from that case led the SPS to review its management of all trans prisoners, and some were moved back into prisons that aligned with their gender at birth.
Eastwood had previously been bullied and assaulted by male prisoners after starting to transition in 2017 and was terrified to be back among them. A GeoAmey spokesperson said: “All allegations regarding staff conduct are subject to internal investigation. It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.”
