Transsexual guilty of making bombs
THESE are the bombs seized in a transsexual's hospital living quarters – after she threatened to kill herself because her father would not accept her sex change.
Angie Dews, 43, pleaded guilty to three counts of making the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) uncovered by police at the South Croydon mental health hospital where she lived and received care.
Dews, formerly known as Mark Camm, has been living as a woman for the past 18 months and was a resident at Southleigh Community hospital, in Brighton Road, which had to be evacuated.
The guilty plea at Croydon Crown Court on Friday means we can now reveal the details of a court hearing earlier this year, which heard how police were called to the hospital by a woman calling herself Dews' stepmum.
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A day after the bombs were found on January 18, Peter Bonham, prosecuting, told Croydon Magistrates' Court: "Police received a call from someone who stated that she was Miss Dews' stepmum and that she said her stepson [Dews] had called, saying he had a gun and would kill himself if no one told him he was loved.
"However, when the police arrived they discovered Miss Dews had made a number of improvised explosive devices, known as IEDs.
"There was also a home-made handgun firearm recovered from the scene and loaded with explosive powder material, initially thought to be explosive material from inside fireworks.
"In the subsequent interview she admitted she made the items and said she also wanted to prove she could make them after failing an interview to join the military where she was told she would never become a bomb specialist."
The court was told Dews is currently undergoing gender realignment, has been taking hormone therapy medication since 1999 and has had an initial operation to change her gender.
The Advertiser understands she is yet to receive a final operation to make her transformation complete, but has been living as a woman for about 18 months.
Dews, who has now been in custody for 223 days, was convicted of manslaughter after stabbing a man in 1997. The incident was accepted to be on the grounds of diminished responsibility at the Old Bailey in 1998.
Dews pleaded guilty to building the IEDs, made out of household materials including wood and old batteries, with reasonable suspicion they were being made for an unlawful purpose.
At the January hearing, Louise Hartley, defending Dews, said: "She has a very difficult relationship with her father who doesn't accept that she lives as a woman. She doesn't have the contact she desperately craves.
"She had no intention of harming herself and had no intention of harming anybody else. It was a cry for attention and a misguided science project."
Judge Jeremy Gold ordered a psychiatric report be carried out before sentencing on September 21.
A spokesperson from South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust said it conducted a review of the incident earlier this year
He added: "The review found no evidence of any breach of duty of care, and concluded the incident could not reasonably have been prevented in a non-secure unit."
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