A transgender man who tricked three women into sex when they believed he was born male has failed to overturn a ten-year prison sentence.
Tarjit Singh, 32, insisted on sex in the dark and used an Ann Summers strap-on sex toy in the bedroom to dupe his victims, while dressing in men’s clothing in his everyday life.
Singh was born female as Hannah Walters, and now lives as a trans man.
He claimed to be shy or cold to avoid taking clothes off during sex, and targeted one vulnerable victim when she was just 16-years-old.
Singh was convicted at Snaresbrook Crown Court of a series of violent and sexual crimes against three victims between 2010 and 2016.
The women said they felt sick, were humiliated, and angry and ashamed when they realised that they had been tricked by Singh.
Judge Oscar Del Fabbro jailed Singh for ten years with an added three years on licence in 2022, and called Singh “an accomplished and manipulative liar” who had carried out “cruel and calculating” crimes.
At the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, judges dismissed Singh’s bid to cut the prison sentence.
Lord Justice Dingemans, sitting with Mrs Justice Cutts and Judge Heather Norton, said the defendant has gender dysphoria and has struggled while being held in a women’s prison because of “misgendering which would happen from time to time and the absence of any way of walking away from the situation”.
Singh has made 72 complaints while at HMP Downview, with 11 upheld and four partially upheld, and the judges said he has “exhibited challenging behaviour in custody”.
But the court concluded that the original sentencing judge had taken the potential for difficulties in prison into account when passing sentence.
The court accepted that Singh has mental disorders, and dismissed challenges that the sentencing judge had made mistakes on the vulnerability of one of the victims, and the extent of planning of the crimes.
The Court of Appeal also concluded that the judge had been right to find that Singh is dangerous.
“There was clear evidence….that the judge’s findings were properly made”, they ruled.
“The fresh evidence shows that the appellant has continued to cause difficulties in prison. The finding of dangerousness was one that the judge was entitled to make.”
Singh’s trial heard how he refused to get undressed in the bedroom and ensured intimacy with each of the women took place in the dark.
One victim, who had just turned 16 when she met Singh through Facebook, said she was naked during their first sexual encounter, and later told police: “He looked like a guy, he acted like a guy, it’s not an everyday thing, is it?”
She was beaten up by Singh when she found a sex toy and asked about it, and said in an impact statement she had been “robbed of the most important years of my life”.
“For a long time I was afraid to go out, and if I did I was made to feel like I had to watch over my shoulder”, she said.
Singh lied to the second victim, telling her he had been born male, had a sex change to become a woman as a teenager, and claimed to be now in the process of changing back again.
The third victim met Walters through the Plenty of Fish dating website, believing she was dating a man until she heard Walters’ father “call him ‘Hannah’ and told me he was a girl”.
“I realised everything was a lie, and to have someone you loved do what he has done makes you feel sick”, she told police.
“You feel like you are stupid for believing someone you thought you could trust. I never thought anyone would do that to me, especially someone I cared about.”
In her impact statement, she said: “It feels like an invasion of my life that no else will ever understand.
“(Singh) stole my 20s from me. I am too scared to go to places I want to go, and get scared when someone is walking too close to me.”
The third victim said she suspected something was amiss when she did not see scarring on Singh’s body, after he claimed to have just gone through a sex change operation.
She said a storyline on Hollyoaks about transgender issues had helped her to understand Singh was lying, and she confirmed her suspicions by hunting out Singh’s birth certificate.
“He is a manipulator, he is crazy”, she added. “He is a spiteful and malicious woman that needs some serious help.”
Mobile phone evidence showed incriminating websites Walters had visited, including FreeToMProsthetics.com, a company making ultra-realistic prosthetic penises.
The court heard Singh left one of the victim’s with a black eye, and broke another’s nose by striking her with a mobile phone. The latter woman was also punched, slapped, beaten, and strangled.
“You deceived them by not truly revealing you were born a biological female”, said the sentencing judge.
“Instead of opening up a frank, honest, and respectful discussion with them about your gender and who you really wanted to be and how you wished to lead your life, you chose a different path instead.
“With them, you chose a path to deceit. You persuaded them you were male - you acted and took on the appearance of a male, and whether biological or through the transition process it matters not. That’s the impression you gave the women.
“They were drawn in by your charm, humour, companionship, and ability to purportedly lend them a sympathetic ear. But nothing could be further from the truth about you.”
Singh has previous convictions for cruelty to an animal, drugs supply, and a 2009 offence of assault and false imprisonment, where a woman was lured to Singh’s flat and brutally assaulted.
In 2016, Singh was back behind bars at a women’s prison with a sentence of more than seven years, when a man was drugged after being targeted over Plenty of Fish.
Singh, from north London, denied but was convicted of three counts of assault by penetration, six counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and one count of making a threat to kill.
A sexual harm prevention order was imposed to curb Singh’s ability to use the internet and social media to target women.
The Court of Appeal quashed an “unlawful” victim surcharge that was imposed on Singh at sentencing.
