A transsexual prisoner serving life for manslaughter and attempted rape committed while she was a man today won the right to be moved to a women's jail.

The 27-year-old, who cannot be identified, was described by her lawyer as “a woman trapped inside a man's body”.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw had refused her request to be moved from a men's prison but today a High Court found his decision breached her human rights under Article 8 (right to private and family life) under the European Convention on Human Rights.

Although apparently born male, A had her womanhood recognised by law and her birth certificate had been amended.

She was being held on a “vulnerable prisoners” wing of the men's prison.

The Department of Justice and prison authorities argued that she would be no more likely to be accepted by inmates at a women's prison and, if moved, would have to spend long periods in segregation at an extra cost of £80,000 per year.

Prisoner A was serving an automatic “two strikes” life sentence for manslaughter in 2001, and attempted rape of a woman stranger five days after her release from her five-year manslaughter sentence.

Her life sentence tariff expired in 2007. She is likely to be moved to a women's prison within a few weeks.

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