Teenage boy arrested after serious sexual assaults in 'gender neutral toilet' at school
30 June 2023, 19:15 | Updated: 30 June 2023, 19:27
A teenage boy has been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, said to have taken place in a gender-neutral toilet in a school in Essex.
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Essex Police arrested the boy after schoolgirls reported four incidents of serious sexual assault.
Three of these are said to have taken place in gender-neutral toilets at the school, which is not being named.
The boy, who is under 16, has been bailed with conditions, officers said.
A police spokesman said: "We are currently investigating reports of serious sexual assaults, which are believed to have occurred at a school in north Essex.
"We are working closely with the school and local authorities whilst inquiries for this investigation continue."
An Essex County Council spokesman added: "We are supporting the leadership at the school and will provide additional support to the school community if required.
"The school have communicated with parents and carers and have offered support.
"As this is an ongoing police investigation, we are not able to comment further at this time."
Campaigners and politicians have slammed the use of gender-neutral toilets in schools.
Harry Potter author and outspoken critic of some transgender policies JK Rowling said the toilets compromise girls' safety.
She tweeted: "Girls' safety, privacy and dignity are being sacrificed to an incoherent ideology pushed by lobby groups, which gives predatory males easy access to victims."
Conservative MP Miriam Cates told the Telegraph: "Gender-neutral facilities are a threat to the safety of women and girls because they create a private space hidden from the public view where assaults cannot be witnessed.
"Whilst, of course, the vast majority of males do not mean females any harm, the few who do will inevitably seek to take advantage of the opportunity that gender-neutral facilities present to commit offences."
