Britain's Barbie Kardashian? The terrible case of Vivienne Taylor

If he was so mentally ill, why was he deemed fit to undergo a major, life-altering operation?

Vivienne Taylor, who was jailed last week for a terrifying campaign of stalking and harassment against the medic who carried out his sex change surgery, is very seriously mentally ill, and was so at the time he had his genitalia removed. I was in court to hear the judge’s sentencing remarks, including the terrifying details of Taylor’s disturbing behaviour.

Vivienne Taylor

Trans-identified Taylor walked into the dock of Isleworth Crown Court, London, wearing a baby pink jacket, his long, blond hair down his back, and full make up. When asked his name by the usher he replied, MISS Vivienne Taylor, the ‘miss’ part much louder and pronounced than the rest.

The judge who sentenced him to 21 months in prison, at Isleworth crown court, was left in no doubt of that. Taylor, 28, has been diagnosed with severe personality disorder, and narcissistic disorder. He is also autistic and exhibits a rare psychiatric condition known as erotic delusional disorder – believing that his victim is in love with him and wants to have sex with him.

These mental illnesses are longstanding and existed prior to Taylor’s two ‘gender reassignment surgeries’, which involved the amputation of his genitals and the fashioning of a false vagina, all done on the NHS.

Many people will feel, as I do, that a compulsion to undergo a so-called sex change is evidence in itself of profound mental illness.

But Taylor’s conditions were broader and more extreme than gender dysphoria, the delusion of being trapped in a body of the wrong sex. He (and unlike the court, I insist on using the biologically correct pronouns) was patently far too ill to give informed consent for such a major medical procedure.

His case proves we have to stop talking about ‘trans rights’ and recognise that people who demand sex change surgery are seriously mentally ill.

It is irresponsible, cruel and dangerous to inflict irreversible mutilations on their bodies. And yet, far from approaching these operations with caution, the NHS is rushing to perform them, often with minimal checks.

If Taylor had been properly assessed, his fragile mental health would have been identified long before surgeon Tina Rashid operated – and life-changing trauma for both of them could have been avoided.

The story that transpired at yesterday’s sentencing hearing was horrific from start to finish. Born in June 1997, Taylor (whose original, boyhood name was not revealed) suffered a wretched childhood, abused by both his father and his mother, and put into care during his teens.

He has experienced a large number of serious sexual assaults. None of this, apparently, gave doctors pause for thought before he was approved for sex change surgery in 2021. The operations were carried out at Chelsea and Westminster by Rashid, a consultant urologist, whose website cites her as, ‘the most senior female surgeon in her field in the UK with vast experience in genital surgery for trans women’.

During his recovery in hospital, it became obvious that Taylor was obsessed with Rashid. Staff noticed he had a great many photos of her on his phone, apparently downloaded from the internet. Shortly after being discharged, he returned to the Chelsea and Westminster, demanding to see her and claiming that he had suffered complications from the surgery. In fact, it appeared he had self-harmed.

In his ‘protect Scouse dolls’ T-Shirt

He bombarded Rashid with emails and social media requests, and made four more return visits, saying he had appointments to see her. This campaign of stalking was extensive, well-planned, well executed and comparatively sophisticated, the court heard.

Using Freedom of Information requests, he made more than 90 attempts to discover everything he could about his victim. Days after his operation, for example, he filed an official application to be told, ‘What was Tina Rashid’s reasoning, drive and motivation to enter medicine and become a doctor and then ultimately, become a consultant surgeon?’ and ‘What are the direct professional contact details of Miss Tina G Rashid?’

When he was barred from the hospital, he suffered a breakdown and was sectioned – that is, confined to a mental institution for his own safety. For a time after his release, he returned to Merseyside, where he grew up, but in April 2024 came back to London... where the harassment began again, worse than before.

He began emailing Rashid, asking to meet for dinner. When that was ignored, he made contact on social media site LinkedIn, where he described himself, in his online bio, as ‘an aspiring surgeon in gender affirmation’. Then he started turning up at the hospital again.

He changed his hair colour to match hers (though his defence barrister later claimed he was merely reverting to his own natural tint) and even, since the surgeon was a Muslim, converted to Islam. It was as though he was trying to become the woman he was stalking.

Then the message became abusive. In one email, he called Rashid and her partner ‘posh c***s’ and threatened to ‘batter’ her and ‘s**g’ her partner.

In a victim impact statement, the surgeon said she was badly shaken by the threats, and cut her social life to practically nothing, for fear Taylor would start targeting her friends. Rather than risk walking anywhere, she took cabs, and took a panic alarm wherever she went. Rashid had, as have many other gender medics, helped to create a monster.

Her anxiety became so bad that, in the hospital theatre, she almost had to cancel an operation after the patient had already been given a general anaesthetic.

Last November, Taylor was arrested and remanded in custody, by no means a usual procedure in stalking cases where the offender has no previous police record.

Charged with threatening and stalking Rashid, he pleaded guilty, and claimed to be repentant. He understood, he said, that he should not attempt to contact her – yet two letters addressed to her from him in prison were later intercepted by staff.

In court yesterday, wearing a baby pink jacket, with his long peroxide blonde hair hanging down his back, he announced his name as ‘Miss Vivienne Taylor’. He’s the holder of a ‘gender recognition certificate’ and His Honour Judge Edward Connell was at pains to refer to him with female pronouns.

Imposing a 21 month sentence, the judge said, ‘Obviously prison has been awful for you, I understand that. You were initially in a male prison, which would make it particularly difficult.’

Taylor was first held at Wandsworth, a male prison, and an early request to be moved to a women’s prison was turned down. It is not clear where he is now imprisoned.

Some male trans-identified prisoners, sometimes those who have undergone sex reassignment surgery, can be sent to female prisons, if it is deemed safe, or to a specialist unit. (In my opinion, it is never safe, just as it is never safe to have a man in a female changing room, whether or not they commit sexual offences.)

An indefinite restraining order was also imposed, barring Taylor from contacting Rashid. An application from the defence to have this limited to 10 years was refused.

All this, sadly, is too late to prevent Rashid from suffering years of anxiety. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, though I strongly disapprove of her medical practice, and I believe she has done a great deal of harm to patients under her care by performing surgery on their genitalia.

Though his traumatic upbringing does not excuse his crimes, it’s obvious that Taylor has been very badly let down by the medical system.

His profound mental illness should have been recognised. Whatever flimsy safeguards exist have failed. He reminds me of the extremely dangerous Barbie Kardashian. I can’t see how Taylor will be fit to be released in the future, bearing in mind how his delusions have been pandered to. How many more men like him are there? The victim of gender lunacy, turned perpetrator, and deeply psychotic.

The NHS has allowed ‘trans rights’ to blind it to all other considerations. It’s madness... and it’s very dangerous.