by A transgender man who tricked three women into having sex when they believed he was born has failed to have his ten-year prison sentence overturned.
Tarjit Singh, 32, insisted he had sex in the dark and used an Ann Summers strap-on sex toy in the bedroom to dump his victims, while dressing in men’s clothes in his everyday life.
Singh was born as Hannah Walters, and now lives as a trans man.
He claimed he was shy or cold to not take his 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 were sickened, humiliated, and angry and ashamed when they realized Singh had betrayed them.
Jailing Singh for ten years with an additional three years on license in 2022, Judge Oscar Del Fabbro called Singh a “skilled and manipulative liar” who committed “cruel and calculated” crimes.
At the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, the judges rejected Singh’s bid to impose the prison sentence.
Lord Justice Dingemans, sitting with Judge Cutts and Judge Heather Norton, said the defendant has gender dysphoria and had struggled while being held in a women’s prison because of “injustices arising from time to time and no way to walk away from it. from the situation”.
Singh has made 72 complaints while at HMP Downview, 11 upheld and four partially upheld, and judges said he has exhibited “challenging behavior in custody”.
But the court concluded that the original sentencing judge had taken into account the potential for difficulties in prison when imposing the sentence.
The court accepted that Singh has mental disorders, and dismissed objections that the judge who imposed the sentence had made mistakes on the vulnerability of one of the victims, and on the extent of the planning of the crimes.
The Court of Appeal also found that the judge was right to find Singh dangerous.
“There was clear evidence…that the judge’s decisions were correctly made”, they ruled.
“The fresh evidence shows that the appellant has continued to cause difficulties in prison. The determination of danger was a decision the judge was entitled to make.”
Singh’s trial heard how he refused to get undressed in the bedroom and ensured that relations with each of the women took place in the dark.
One victim, who was just 16 when she met Singh through Facebook, said she was naked during their first sexual encounter, and later told police: “He looked like with a man, he acted like a man, it’s not an everyday thing, ie it?”
Singh hit her when she found a sex toy and asked about it, and said in an impact statement that 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 felt I had to watch over my shoulder”, she said.
Singh spoke to the second victim, telling her that he was born male, that he had sex-changed to become a woman as a teenager, and claimed that he was now in the process of changing back again.
A third victim met Walters through the dating website Plenty of Fish, believing she was dating a man until she heard Walters’ father “calling him ‘Hannah’ and he told me it was a girl”.
“I realized that everything was a lie, and if someone you love feels what he did, you feel sick”, she told the police.
“You feel stupid for believing someone you trusted. 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 one else will ever understand.
“(Singh) stole my 20s from me. I’m too scared to go places I want to go, and scared when someone walks too close to me.”
The third victim said she suspected something was amiss when she saw no scarring on Singh’s body, after he claimed he had just undergone a sex-change operation.
She said a storyline on Hollyoaks about transgender issues helped her realize Singh was lying, and she confirmed her suspicions by looking for Singh’s birth certificate.
“He’s a manipulator, he’s crazy”, she said. “She is an abusive and malicious woman who needs serious help.”
Cellphone evidence showed incriminating websites Walters visited, including FreeToMProsthetics.com, a company that makes ultra-realistic prosthetic penises.
The court heard that Singh left one of the victims with a black eye, and broke another’s nose when he hit her with a mobile phone. The last woman was also punched, slapped, beaten, and strangled.
“You deceived them because you did not truthfully reveal that you were born a biological female”, said the judge who handed down the sentence.
“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 wanted to lead your life, you chose a different path instead.
“Along with them, you have chosen a path of deception. You convinced them that you were male – you acted and assumed a male appearance, and whether it was biological or through the transition process it doesn’t matter. That’s the impression you gave the women.
“Draw them in with your humor, your humor, your companionship, and your ability to, on purpose, give them a caring ear. But nothing could be further from the truth about you.”
Singh has previous convictions for animal cruelty, drug supply, and a 2009 offense 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 at Nart Eis.
Singh, from north London, pleaded not guilty but was found guilty of three counts of assault by penetration, six counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and one count of threatening to kill.
A sexual harm prevention order was imposed to restrict Singh’s ability to use the internet and social media to target women.
The Court of Appeal quashed an “unlawful” victim surcharge imposed on Singh at sentencing.
