“There’s nothing male about her, nobody would know the difference,” her mother, Jackie Brooklyn, told the Bath Chronicle. “She looks like a woman. I just feel the men are going to go after her.”

Tara Hudson, a transgender woman, was sentenced to spend time in an all-male prison because she is still not “legally” seen as female. Prison authorities had claimed that to actually register her as a woman – which she clearly is and has been living as female for six years – they would require a Gender Recognition Certificate: a formal and costly document that serves as “proof” of a person's gender transition.

A petition on Change to allow Hudson to serve her sentence at a female prison picked up over 55,000 signatures and in response, she will now be moved to one.

600 men are currently incarcerated at HMP Bristol, where Hudson was to serve her 12 weeks for assault, and recent reports have claimed that the prison's violence has “risen sharply” and that not enough is being done to “protect some vulnerable prisoners.” This is a dangerous environment for a woman to have to reside.

A Prison Service spokesman told PinkNews: “It is long-standing policy to place offenders according to their legally recognised gender. However, our guidelines allow room for discretion, and in such cases medical experts will review the circumstances in order to protect the emotional well-being of the person concerned.”

Further to this, yesterday it was heard that Hudson has been given leave to appeal against the sentence for the assault conviction. She’ll appeal before Bristol Crown Court on Friday to argue she should be given a non-custodial sentence.