NHS Nurse Investigated After Calling Trans Paedophile ‘Mr’
An NHS nurse is taking legal action against the Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals Trust after she was suspended and investigated over refusing to use the preferred pronouns of a transgender paedophile.
Jennifer Melle, 40, a nurse at St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, Surrey, was helping to treat an inmate from a high-security men’s prison when the patient complained she had misgendered them.
In response to being misgendered, the patient racially abused Melle and called her the N-word several times, while they were restrained in their hospital bed.
Melle says she refused to refer to the 6ft transgender paedophile by their preferred pronouns because it goes against her Christian beliefs.
She was investigated by the hospital in October 2024 while suspended on full pay, and a referral was sent to the Nursing and Midwifery Council to assess her ability to practise in accordance with its code of conduct – which forbids nurses from expressing personal beliefs.
Melle told LBC: “A patient was admitted and he came from a male prison.
“He was being looked after by another nurse that night. I was the nurse in charge that night. The nurse came over for help…. Really very shaken and very distressed.
“I said we will come and help.
“When I spoke to the doctor, the patient overheard me calling him Mr and that’s how he became very outraged and began to call me the n-word.
“He appeared very, very aggressive. He began to shout the n-word multiple times.”
She said she told him “I can’t refer to you as a woman as it is against my faith.
“He launched at me and had to be restrained by the prison guards. He was in handcuffs, both hand and foot.
“For me it is against by belief and to go against the word of god for me to refer to a man as a woman. It’s also against my conscience.”
She said her view was that “It’s a man, six foot tall in a male prison.”
Melle says she was shocked to receive a call later that night informing her that the patient had complained about her misgendering them, and that she would have to give a statement and be moved to a different department and face disciplinary action.
She was made to attend several meetings where she stood firm on her stance, and told bosses she would refer to patients by their names from now on. Over a year later, she remains in limbo while the NHS waits for updated guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Melle says the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) had ‘totally let her down.’
“I’m praying and hoping… they would adhere to the Supreme Court ruling… and let me back to work.”
Ridiculous situation really. OK, it’s got to be nice on some level being suspended with pay for 14 months and counting, but Melle is clearly someone who wants to get back to work and serve her patients as she has been doing already, drama-free, for 12 years. To be waiting this long for a resolution after being racially abused by a transgender paedophile whose preferred pronouns she refused to use just seems like an absolute joke really.
Here’s hoping it all gets sorted soon – whether through the legal action Melle is taking via the Christian Legal Centre, or from within the NHS itself.
For the racist couple who went viral for asking an NHS nurse if she ‘came here on a rubber boat’, click HERE.
