Christian nurse takes legal action after being investigated and punished by NHS for calling convicted ‘transgender’ male paedophile ‘Mr’
23 March 2025 Issued by: Christian ConcernA senior Christian nurse faces losing her career after she was investigated and disciplined by an NHS Trust for refusing to refer to a male child sex offender patient as a woman.
The convicted paedophile, ‘Mr X’, is in a high security male prison after multiple convictions for luring boys into sex acts while pretending to be a teenage girl on social media.
After refusing to refer to Mr X as a ‘she’ while on duty, Jennifer Melle, 40, from Croydon, was racially abused and physically threatened.
Instead of supporting Jennifer, however, Epsom and St Helier University Hospital Trust has abandoned and treated her like the criminal.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has also said Jennifer is ‘a potential risk’ for not using Mr X’s preferred ‘gender identity.’
The story is the latest in a series of cases where NHS policy supports trans ideology over biological reality. It also follows the publication of the Sullivan report this week which revealed that the police are allowing criminals to ‘self-identify’ their gender on official records.
In this case, policy has led, in the name of inclusivity, to the NHS siding with a paedophile convicted of serious offences, while pretending to be the opposite sex, over members of staff with Christian and gender-critical beliefs.
Supported by the Christian Legal Centre, the case Miss Melle has now launched against the Trust on the grounds of harassment, discrimination and human rights’ breaches, is believed to be unprecedented.
In response to her claims, NHS lawyers have said that Christian beliefs Miss Melle holds, that we are born male and female, are ‘not worthy of respect in a democratic society.’
Male sex offender: ‘I am a woman!’
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 this 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.
Jennifer’s case follows other high profile legal cases involving nurses in Darlington and Scotland taking legal action against the NHS over being forced to undress in female changing rooms in front of men ‘identifying’ as women.
‘I feel institutionally abused’
Jennifer, who says she has never had any issues with any transgender patients previously, said: “I am devastated by how I have been treated and believe I am being institutionally abused, harassed, bullied and racially discriminated against.
“Ever since I have expressed my Christian beliefs under extreme pressure, I have been a marked woman.
“I do not feel supported by my colleagues, or the NHS, following the racial abuse and threat of physical violence I received from the patient. I remained professional throughout and always treat each and every individual with dignity and respect.
“My conduct throughout this incident and during my career has been fully compliant with the code.
“I have been put at risk, but I am being treated like a criminal. Sadly, if you put your head above the parapet and speak truthfully on these issues in the NHS the risk is that you will be knocked down, punished severely and demoted.
“The message to me during the investigation is that I should put up with extreme racism and deny biological reality and my deeply held Christian beliefs, for the sake of ‘inclusivity’ and respecting lies.
“It feels like I am dreaming, but I am trusting in Jesus to look after me. I have to take a stand on this issue and am concerned about how many other NHS workers are suffering in silence during similar experiences.”
Andrea Williams, Chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “The NHS appears to remain captured by transgender ideology to the point it is prepared to back a convicted paedophile, who was clearly very disturbed and shouting racist comments, over the Christian nurse.
“Jennifer Melle was genuinely doing her best while not wanting to deny her Christian faith and biological reality.
“We thought we had seen it all when it comes to controversial legal cases on these issues, but what Jennifer Melle is experiencing at the hands of this ideology is off the scale and on a whole new disturbing level.
“Jennifer loves Jesus and is a talented nurse who should be supported and protected, not investigated and silenced.
“The Trust cannot force compelled speech on their staff and an urgent U-turn and apology is needed.
“We would ask Wes Streeting, as health secretary, to investigate what is happening here. He is already involved in the Darlington nurses’ case, and has previously said he is ‘horrified’ by how they are being treated. It’s time for government intervention on this matter.
“It’s time for the government to stop equality and diversity policies being weaponised in the NHS to punish innocent nurses just doing their job.
“We will stand with Jennifer for as long as it takes for her to receive justice and with any other nurses who are discriminated against due to this dangerous ideology.”
