St Helier Hospital in Carshalton is under fire after being exposed that it waited a year to probe racist abuse experienced by a Christian nurse at the hands of a transgender paedophile patient.
Since the incident in May 2024, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals had instead chosen to discipline, investigate, and give a final written warning to Jennifer Melle for indirectly calling a six-foot transgender paedophile patient ‘Mr’ while on the phone to a doctor.
For doing so, ‘Mr X’, lunged at Jennifer and called her a n***** three times for referring to him as a man.
Mr X is in a men’s prison after being convicted for luring boys into the sex acts on the internet while pretending to be a woman.
Despite Jennifer raising what she had experienced during an investigation into the incident, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals chose to ignore the abuse and instead gave her a final written warning and reported her to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
The NMC confirmed they would be scrutinising Jennifer’s fitness to practice as a nurse because she posed a ‘risk’ to the public and the reputation of the NHS for not using the patient’s preferred gender identity.
Only after Jennifer went public with her story, and the Trust faced media scrutiny, did they apologise publicly and say they would investigate the racist abuse. No one at the hospital or Trust has apologised to Jennifer directly.
After the story broke in the media, Trust representatives sought to cast doubt on Jennifer’s story to journalists.
They told them to amend their copy because they claimed they had already investigated Mr X’s racism and apologised to Jennifer, when in fact they only did this through media statements after the story became public.
The Trust has since released a statement saying: ‘We contacted a patient to warn them that racially offensive language is not tolerated.’ They also said: “There is no excuse for racially abusing our staff, and we’re sorry that Ms Melle had this experience, and we’re investigating her complaints.”
Meanwhile, Jennifer has been suspended pending an investigation for telling her story to the media and for an alleged ‘potential data breach.’
What the breach is has not been disclosed to Jennifer or her lawyers.
Supported by lawyers at the Christian Legal Centre, Jennifer is taking legal action against the Trust on the grounds of harassment, discrimination and human rights’ breaches, in a case that is believed to be unprecedented.
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which is backing Jennifer, said: “It speaks volumes that the Trust only showed interest in the racist abuse Jennifer suffered after her case hit the media headlines. This abuse happened on 22 May 2024. Yet by 12 August, they had already wrapped up their investigation into her so-called ‘misgendering’—and taken no action on the real racism she endured.
“Now they’re tripping over themselves to apologise, while still suspending her for referring to a 6-foot male paedophile prisoner who identifies as a woman as ‘Mr.’ We urge the Trust to do the right thing and follow the Supreme Court’s clear lead on the reality of biological sex.”
As well as J.K. Rowling, leader of the Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has also waded in with support for Jennifer describing her treatment as ‘completely crazy’. She said: “She has my full support. It’s time the Government pulls its finger out and intervenes to make it clear no one should be punished at work for stating biological reality to paedophiles.”
Background to the story
On the night of May 22, 2024, Jennifer began her shift at the hospital, where a Pride Progress Flag—symbolising support for transgender rights and gender identity affirmation—flew from the rooftop.
Miss Melle, who came to the UK from Uganda as a child, and has worked her way up to become a senior nurse, had been told along with her colleagues that Mr X had been brought in for treatment from a Category C men’s prison and was a sex offender.
He entered the hospital chained to two guards and was clearly masculine in appearance, standing over six feet tall and of large build.
At 10pm, a junior colleague approached Miss Melle in a distressed state saying that Mr X wanted to self-discharge. He was shouting and upsetting other elderly and vulnerable patients on the ward.
The doctor had been called for guidance on the discharge but had not yet responded. As the senior nurse on the ward, Jennifer followed her colleague to take charge of the situation and to provide support.
Looking at the patient’s medical records, she saw that the patient was recorded as male, not female or transgender. On the name board next to the bed, it simply gave the feminine name.
With her colleague finally getting through to the doctor on the phone, Jennifer requested to speak to him. She said to the doctor that: ‘Mr X would like to self-discharge.’
Overhearing the call, enraged Mr X screamed: “Do not call me Mr! I am a woman!”
Still on the phone to the doctor, Jennifer called back to Mr X that she was speaking to the doctor and was working out what medication could be given before he was discharged.
Finishing the call, she approached the patient’s room.
‘Imagine if I called you a n*****?’
Stepping inside, Jennifer found Mr X pacing up and down in chains.
Jennifer politely said: ‘I am sorry I cannot refer to you as her or she, as it’s against my faith and Christian values but I can call you by your name.’
She then began to relay what the doctor had said, but then the abuse and vitriol escalated.
‘Imagine if I called you n*****’, Mr X yelled. ‘How about I call you n*****? Yes, black n*****!’
Jennifer said if he carried on, she would have to call security.
Mr X then lunged threateningly towards Jennifer and pursued her out of the room until he was eventually held back by the guards.
He then shouted: ‘I want your name and NHS number and am going to report you to the police for homophobia and to Patient Advice and Liaison Service’ (PALS).
One of the guards approached Jennifer and said: ‘Why can’t you just call him what he wants?’
Jennifer reiterated what she had already said about her Christian beliefs, and the guard said no more.
Returning, Jennifer said, using Mr X’s feminine name: ‘I got you your pain relief.’
After having the painkillers, Mr X calmed down and was quiet until the morning.
‘God created them male and female’
Afraid and upset, but keeping it inside, Jennifer handed over to colleagues on the next shift but felt unable to speak to anyone about what had happened.
Another colleague, who is not black, also called Mr X ‘he’ that evening but was not disciplined for doing so.
Shortly after arriving home, Jennifer received a call from a colleague who had taken over her shift. They said that Mr X had been shouting for her and repeating the threat that he was going to make a complaint to PALS.
Sleepless nights followed.
The next time Jennifer was on night shift, she was pulled aside by a ward manager and asked to make a statement about what had happened.
After Jennifer relayed that she was still feeling impacted by the racial and potential physical attacks, she was told that despite that she still had to respect “equality and diversity” according to the Nursing and Midwifery Council code of conduct.
Jennifer said she had no issues with people’s sexuality but also asked where the respect was for her Christian beliefs and said that she ‘could not deny biological reality’.
As a Christian, Jennifer believes that the Bible is unambiguous about human sex, as it is written in Genesis 1:27, that:
‘So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.’
Over the next few days Jennifer said she felt pressured to provide management with a statement.
She was then told that she must attend a meeting with HR and that if she refused to comply, she would be sent home until an investigation was completed.
She was then redeployed to another unit, which she found to be hurtful and demeaning.
Regulatory breach
An investigation report subsequently concluded that: ‘the Code of Conduct outlines that in order to treat people as individuals and to uphold their dignity nurses should avoid making assumptions and should recognise Diversity and individual choice.’
The report cited the NMC Code of Conduct which states that nurses should ‘not express your personal beliefs (including political, religious or moral beliefs) in an inappropriate way. Therefore, although [Jennifer] felt unable to identity Patient X using the preferred pronouns due to her religion, as outlined in the NMC Code of Conduct, it could be perceived that [Jennifer’s] actions could…be seen as a potential breach of the code.’
She was accused of ‘not respecting the patient’s preferred identity’ and told her actions and behaviour had ‘fallen short of the Trust’s value of Respect’.
Summoned to a disciplinary hearing in October 2024, Jennifer was given a final written warning and has been referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
Since the incident, she has been moved to another ward and effectively demoted. Her name was wiped off the internal system, making it difficult to apply for extra shifts at the hospital.
Her capacity to earn much needed extra money was therefore removed and she and her family have suffered as a result.
Under severe pressure within the system, and with her career and livelihood under investigation and at serious risk, Jennifer faced no alternative but to file a legal claim on the grounds of harassment and direct discrimination.
She says that the NHS has unlawfully interfered with her rights under Article 9 ECHR to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, especially with her right to manifest her religion by seeking to compel her to use preferred pronouns.
Find out more about Jennifer Melle
