A nurse who referred to a transgender paedophile patient as ‘mister’ has been allowed to keep her job in the NHS amid an outpouring of support from colleagues and MPs.
Jennifer Melle faced losing her job for speaking out about the incident in May 2024, during which she was subjected to screaming racist abuse and threats of violence from the patient.
Protesters including the Darlington nurses, who last week won their case against an NHS hospital that allowed a male-born colleague to use the women’s changing rooms, gathered outside the hospital headquarters in Epsom, Surrey, where Jennifer was hauled before a disciplinary panel today.
They held placards reading: ‘Safe spaces for women’ and ‘Uphold reality’.
After her crunch hearing, from which press and public were excluded, Ms Melle said she was ‘deeply relieved and grateful’.
‘This has been an incredibly long and painful journey,’ she said. ‘I want to give thanks, first and foremost, to Jesus, who has sustained me every step of the way.
‘I also want to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has stood with me, prayed for me, and supported me through the darkest moments. Your encouragement has meant more than you will ever know.
‘The recent legal victory for the Darlington nurses has shown that sanity and common sense are finally beginning to return to the NHS. It marks a turning point. No more nurses should ever have to endure what I have gone through.
Nurse Jennifer Melle referred to a paedophile patient who identifies as a women ‘mister’
Ms Melle faced an NHS disciplinary panel in Epsom today
Ms Melle’s supporters include (from left): Fife nurse Sandie Peggie, Rebecca Paul MP, Darlington nurse Bethany Hutchison, Jim Shannon MP, Mims Davies MP, Claire Coutinho MP, Darlington nurse Lisa Lockey and Rosie Duffield MP
‘None of us should be punished for speaking the truth, for standing by our professional judgement, or for living according to our deeply held beliefs.’
More than 18,000 people signed a petition calling for Ms Melle to be cleared of wrongdoing.
Among her supporters was shadow equalities minister Claire Coutinho, who described Ms Melle as ‘one of the bravest women I have ever met’.
‘Her case is proof of how the NHS has been captured by a radical gender ideology that puts women at the bottom of the pile,’ she said. ‘In being punished for “misgendering” a convicted paedophile, she has been repeatedly failed by her employers and trade unions.
‘She is a dedicated nurse with 13 years of faultless service. The NHS should not be punishing hard-working nurses who know biological sex is real.’
Others fighting Ms Melle’s corner were MPs Rebecca Paul, Jim Shannon, Mims Davies, Rosie Duffield and NHS Fife nurse Sandie Peggie, who was suspended from her job at Kirkcaldy hospital’s A&E department after complaining about transgender doctor Beth Upton using a women’s changing room.
Ms Melle was on an evening shift when she encountered the burly 6ft patient, a convicted paedophile who identifies as a woman, at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, Surrey.
During a conversation with a doctor outside the patient’s room, Ms Melle referred to the patient as ‘mister’ and ‘he’.
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Ms Melle was dragged before the disciplinary panel after speaking out about her situation in the Mail on Sunday last year
The patient, who was being escorted from prison by a pair of guards, overheard the reference and unleashed a tirade of racist abuse and threats at Ms Melle, 40, which left her shaking with fear and distress.
Despite her trauma, Ms Melle – who has worked as an NHS nurse for 13 years without a blemish on her record – was hauled before hospital bosses the following day and accused of ‘misgendering’ the patient.
She was handed a final written warning and referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which told her it was investigating concerns about her fitness to practise because she ‘referred to a patient in a manner inconsistent with their gender identity’.
The NMC has yet to take any action, but Ms Melle could be struck off.
While she has no problem with people’s sexuality, Ms Melle says her Christian beliefs do not allow her to ‘deny biological reality’. However, the NMC code prohibits nurses from expressing ‘personal beliefs (including political, religious or moral beliefs) in an inappropriate way’.
Feeling totally unsupported by the NHS, Ms Melle revealed her ordeal to the Mail on Sunday last year – prompting Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust to take further disciplinary action against her for ‘breaching the patient’s confidentiality’.
However, Ms Melle did not reveal the patient’s name or other personal data, and was cleared of wrongdoing today.
The nurse is now taking the NHS to tribunal, claiming it has unlawfully interfered with her right to hold gender-critical views under the European Convention on Human Rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The case will open in Croydon on April 13.
She told the Mail on Sunday last year: ‘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.’
Ms Melle was supported by the Christian Legal Centre.
Chief executive Andrea Williams said: ‘The tide is turning. More people are waking up to the simple, biological reality of how we are made, male and female and they are no longer willing to be intimidated into silence or fear for stating it.
‘That is precisely why voices like Jennifer’s matter, and why they must not be crushed.’
A spokesman for Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust said: ‘Following an investigation into a breach of patient confidentiality, we are pleased that a member of staff who was previously suspended on full pay is being reinstated to clinical duties.
‘Racial abuse of our staff will never be tolerated and we are sorry that she had this experience.’
