My rapist pretended to be a woman, so the police, lawyers and judges all called him “she” – it’s unfair, only men can commit rape.

It was early summer of 2021 when 17-year-old Freddie Trenchard invited 14-year-old Anna to his house.

He reassured her that her mother and her boyfriend were both there.

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Anna* had then known Trenchard for two years.

When she entered his bedroom, where she thought they would watch television, he began touching her thighs and waist.

Anna cried and shook as she recounted the horrific events: “I told him to stop several times. »

“But he forced me to have sex.”

“It wasn’t about sex or love,” Anna told me.

“He wants to dominate me.

“He choked me and did things that men see in porn.”

When it was all over, Anna tried to dress herself in tears.

“I’m bleeding,” she said. . . It’s painful. . . I was sitting on his bed, crying, covering myself with a blanket, going crazy.

But Trenchard acted as if he had done nothing wrong, telling her to leave before she made any more noise.

When Anna left her home on the picturesque Channel Island of Guernsey, limping and bleeding, Trenchard’s mother asked her if she was okay.

He answered for her, “She’s fine.” »

He then pushed her towards the garden gate, closing it behind her.

Anna returns home, throws away her clothes and hides in her room.

A day or two later, she told a friend what had happened.

“I was very scared,” she said.

“I think it’s my fault.”

“I took a pregnancy test and I was really scared.”

She didn’t tell anyone else until seven months later, when she finally confided in her sister.

Soon after, Anna discovered Trenchard chatting with one of her closest childhood friends.

She “just freaked out,” posting on social media: “He’s dangerous, stay away from him.” »

“The dirtiest thing”

Anna’s friend’s mother saw this, then took a screenshot and showed it to Anna’s mother.

At first, Anna was hesitant to talk about it, but after returning from school, she called her mother and said, “Come and get me, I’ll tell you everything.” »

She did so and reported it to the police that night in February 2022.

Trenchard is now 20 years old and goes by the name Alyssa Christine Trenchard – although he hasn’t legally changed his name or had surgery.

When he rapes Anna, his only transition is to wear women’s clothes.

However, at the time of his arrest, Guernsey Police had registered him as a woman.

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This sparked waves among lawyers and other legal experts to describe the attack as being carried out by a “transgender woman” with “his penis.”

And by stating in court that Trenchard was “biologically a man” at the time of the rape, the prosecutor suggested that by the time of the trial, that was no longer true.

In court, Anna refused to use female pronouns.

But despite Trenchard’s revelations (on TikTok) that he became sexually aroused when called “Miss”, Judge Catherine Fooks agreed from the start that all court officials should call her “Miss Trenchard”.

After Trenchard complained about being called a “trans man” in the brief, Judge Fooks even reconvened the court after the proceedings were over – to give his opinion, to apologize for the mistake and reassure him that the records will be amended to comply. her desire to be described as a “transgender woman”.

Trenchard’s lawyer claimed that no sexual encounter took place and that the victim was motivated by transphobia.

Anna describes this as “the dirtiest trick, to really paint someone as a bigot” – as she says it’s completely false, she has dated a transgender person before and has dated people you identify as such .

She added: “I have no problem with it at all. But only men can commit rape. Why pretend otherwise?

Much to his anger, Trenchard tried to claim his behavior was because he was bullied for being transgender.

“All he did was start dressing like a woman,” Anna said.

“The worst part is that in court he tried to use the fact that he identifies as a woman to say that he should be treated as a woman. He knows the difficulties of being a woman. How dare he?

“When he says, ‘I’m a woman,’ and then rapes someone, that’s unfair to heterosexual transgender people and to women.

“I am not transgender.

“I knew him when he was young, before his transition.

“His penis raped me, it was stuck to him.

“He had everything under control.”

Anna describes herself as a very sociable person.

“I go dancing, playing and participating in activities every day,” she said.

But she added: “I stopped participating in everything. I don’t feel good going out anymore, especially when I’m on stage in front of so many people.

Earlier this year, before the trial, Anna overdosed.

She was self-harming and extremely depressed and anxious.

The worst part is that in court he tries to use the fact that he identifies as a woman to say that he should be treated like a woman, that he knows the difficulties of being a woman . become a woman. How dare he?

victim Anna

She doesn’t sleep.

“I don’t go out much,” she said.

“I wore baggy clothes, I stopped eating, I changed everything, I changed my hairstyle, I started piercing myself.

“I don’t want to look like I did when he touched me.”

She clearly knew she was just a teenager, while he was 17, almost an adult.

“He knew exactly what he was doing and he planned it,” she told me.

“Losing my virginity was terrible for me.

“I had no choice, but I wanted it to be special.”

But she added: “I was not given the opportunity to choose when or to whom this would happen. »

Anna feels “not human” and wonders if this is normal – what it’s like to have sex for the first time.

But then, when friends start to get older, they say things like, “Oh my God, I had the most incredible experience.” . .”

“Avoid the burden that weighs on your shoulders”

Then she knew.

“My first time wasn’t supposed to go like this,” she said.

“It made me feel disgusting and dirty, and I blamed myself for so long, but it wasn’t my fault.”

Anna is now proud of herself and moving forward.

“Telling someone was important to me and it took a lot of weight off my shoulders,” she said.

“Now I don’t have to go through this alone.

“At least someone knows what he did and believes me.”

On July 28 last year, Trenchard was found guilty of rape following a trial at the Royal Court of Guernsey and has since been sentenced to three years of juvenile detention at Nicolles Prison, on the ‘island.

This prison is a place for men and women during the day.

But women and men are separated to sleep, and the governor said yesterday that “pre-operative transgender prisoners” would be placed in the men’s wing.

Jane Roper, coordinator of the Guernsey Women’s Rights Network, who attended the trial and sentencing, was horrified to learn the details of the attack.

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She said: “It is embarrassing for the court to refer to a convicted rapist using ‘she’ and ‘her’, and it is disconcerting to learn that he now has ‘both male and female genitalia’. ” after several months of using the HRT patch. “

WRN wrote to Judge Fooks to ask why she referred to the rapist as “she” and “Miss”.

She responded that they were following the watchdog principle “in the interest of fairness.”

Meanwhile, Anna said: “Now that he has been convicted, he will think twice before doing this.

“I am a survivor, not a victim”

When she learned that he had been convicted, she felt that “every smirk he gave me, I returned right to his face.”

The jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict in less than an hour, but Trenchard was then released for three months pending sentencing, allowing the convicted rapist to enjoy his freedom while his victim feared leave the house in case she meets him.

Trenchard also sought leave to appeal on grounds of uncertainty, but this was granted at the taxpayer’s expense.

His appeal was unsuccessful but it subjected the victim and her family to the horrors of another legal process.

Although he maintained his innocence – thus subjecting the entire family to a hellish trial and forcing Anna to stand trial by repeating the testimony she had given via video – the judge still granted him the maximum sentence reduction possible .

During sentencing, the Probation Service said Trenchard would be “unlikely to commit further offences”, possibly because he now identifies as a woman.

But a visibly moved Anna asked: “Why does coming out as transgender mean rapists are treated differently?”

Find out more about the Scottish Sun

“Rape is a terrible crime, no matter who they claim to be. »

• That’s not his real name