Following days of inaction, North Yorkshire Police has now arrested a man who threatened, with an image of a large knife, to kill the Darlington nurses and ‘whoever doesn’t support trans rights.’
The message, sent to the union by email on Thursday 29 October, stated:
“I’m going to come over to Darlington Nursing Union to murder whoever doesn’t support trans rights. This isn’t a joke. I know the address: Darlington Memorial Hospital.”
The message was immediately reported to Cleveland Police on Friday 30 October. The matter was subsequently referred to North Yorkshire Police and Durham police, but for days neither force were prepared to take action and kept referring it to each other despite the identity and location of the individual being known.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust was informed on Friday. Three of the Darlington nurses, who were working at the hospital at the time, were escorted by security from the building to their cars.
All seven nurses, known as the Angels of the North and supported by the Christian Legal Centre, have remained at home and have not worked since the threat came to light.
The Darlington Nursing Union (DNU) believes that the threat followed widespread attention generated after J.K. Rowling publicly congratulated the nurses on securing a change to the Trust’s policy governing single-sex facilities. The nurses subsequently posted a message thanking her for her support.
An account belonging to the now arrested individual initially contacted the DNU through Facebook Messenger on 28 October, stating:
“JK Rowling is a f****** evil bitch and you all should be ashamed for supporting her.”
Further messages said:
“I support trans rights. If you don’t you’re all f****** a****holes.”
The sender then wrote:
“Maybe you should kill yourself lol.”
The messages concluded:
“The world would be a better place without your bigotry. I thought I’ll let you know my pronouns are they/them.”
The account was blocked from accessing the union’s Facebook page. The death-threat email was received afterwards.
Only after media intervention, did North Yorkshire police finally act and arrest the individual this morning (November 5).
He has now been released on bail and is prohibited from going anywhere near Darington Memorial hospital or any of the nurses. The police say that their investigation is ongoing.
Potential terrorism dimension
The Darlington Nursing Union has asked the police to consider all potentially applicable offences and investigative frameworks.
Section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2000 defines terrorism as the use or threat of specified forms of action where the threat is designed to influence government or intimidate the public or a section of the public, and is made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause. The specified action includes serious violence against a person and action creating a serious risk to public health or safety.
Whether the alleged conduct meets that statutory definition is a matter for the police, prosecutors and ultimately the courts. The union believes, however, that the stated ideological motivation, explicit threat of serious violence and identification of a public hospital require the potential terrorism dimension to be considered rather than dismissed without assessment.
Three-year legal battle
The threat follows the nurses’ landmark legal victory against County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust.
In January 2026, the Newcastle Employment Tribunal ruled that the Trust had unlawfully harassed and indirectly discriminated against the nurses by requiring them to share a changing room with a biological male colleague who identifies as a woman.
The tribunal found that this requirement amounted to unwanted conduct related to sex and gender reassignment, violated the nurses’ dignity and created a “hostile, humiliating and degrading environment”.
It also found that the Trust’s failure to take the nurses’ concerns seriously created a hostile and intimidating environment.
The case was supported by the Christian Legal Centre and followed the April 2025 ruling of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland Ltd v Scottish Ministers, which clarified that “sex”, “woman” and “man” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex.
Last month, after continued media and political pressure, NHS England finally published guidance putting biological sex at the heart of national policies for staff and patients.
After a three-year dispute, the Trust has now also amended its policy on single-sex facilities in October 2026. The nurses said the change finally brought the policy into line with the law and protected female staff’s access to private changing facilities.
“We will not be frightened into silence”
Bethany Hutchison, President of the Darlington Nursing Union, said:
“We are relieved but deeply shocked that the police took so long to take action on this, and only did after the media contacted them.
“This is not merely offensive online abuse. It is a specific and terrifying threat against a group of identifiable women at a named location which included an image of a large knife. Three of our nurses had to be escorted from their workplace by security, and seven nurses have been unable to return to their jobs.
“We reported the threat immediately and supplied the police with the correspondence. Yet days later, we were left facing uncertainty while police forces passed responsibility between one another.
“Other police forces must take note, especially as White Ribbon Day approaches, and many of these forces have firm commitments to ending violence against women and girls. Protecting us needs to be more than a slogan.
“The apparent trigger for this abuse was that we thanked J.K. Rowling for supporting us after our successful campaign for lawful single-sex changing facilities. Whatever a person’s beliefs, threatening to murder women because they uphold biological reality is utterly unacceptable.
“We will not be frightened into silence. We fought for three years for dignity, privacy and safety at work, and we will not surrender those principles to intimidation or violence.
“To women watching this unfold, our message is simple: stand together, speak the truth and do not allow threats to drive you out of public life. We remain unbowed.”
“A grave test of the authorities’ commitment to women’s safety”
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said:
“This was an extraordinarily grave situation. A group of nurses, and members of the public, were threatened with murder at its named workplace, the correspondence included an image of a large knife, and the threat appears to have been motivated by hostility towards the women’s legally protected and vindicated position.
“Our society has reached a sorry point when women who peacefully and lawfully defend single-sex spaces can face threats of lethal violence. The law must be enforced, violent intimidation must be confronted, and women across the country must resolve to stand together.
“The nurses remain unbowed. The Christian Legal Centre has supported these nurses from the outset, when neither their unions nor their employer would stand with them. We stood beside them as they challenged an unlawful policy, supported their legal battle and helped bring their treatment into the light. We will stand with them through this latest ordeal and until the end.”