A sex offender convicted of multiple offenses is set to qualify for parole, suggesting he may be released from the women’s prison where he has been held, a new report reveals. Benjamin Charles Jones, who previously used the name “Lisa Jones,” but is now referring to himself as “Willow,” had only been released from a women’s prison one month prior to being arrested for the latest sexual offense.
In October 2024, Jones grabbed a 31-year-old woman as she walked past St. Mary’s cathedral in central Sydney. CCTV footage recorded the attack as Jones pulled her by her waist into a hidden corner. When she demanded to be let go, Jones replied, “I want to f–k you. Just let me f–k you.”
As the woman struggled to thwart the attack, Jones pulled down his pants and attempted to force an object into her mouth to silence her. When she was finally able to break free, she ran towards bystanders who helped her flag down a police car. After a brief search, law enforcement arrested Jones.
Newly released CCTV footage recorded the night of the assault shows Jones following the victim for approximately 20 minutes, and even running on occasion to keep up with her.
According to courtroom reports from the Sydney Morning Herald, Jones was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia. He reportedly told a psychiatrist that he lived in an “astral world,” and that the devil had made a bargain with his “sex spirit,” and forced him to “engage in sex rituals.”
But when Jones was standing before the court, he reportedly exclaimed, “I identify as transgender and queer… I had nothing to do with it.”
The woman shared the effect of the “unprecedented, unexpected, and aggressive act” in a victim impact statement she read to the court. “The experience permanently made me more aware of a risk in public spaces and more cautious in situations where I previously felt at ease,” she said.
“I had always walked freely without fear or intimidation, and this experience fundamentally changed my sense of safety. I had become more prepared, but also more vigilant, knowing that one’s life can be suddenly disrupted by extreme violence, even when simply trying to get home.”
Judge Troy Anderson described the crime as “intentional and, frankly, very frightening”. However, during a sentencing hearing in September, he took into consideration Jones’ diagnoses of schizophrenia, gender dysphoria, historic substance abuse and depression and anxiety. In Sydney, the maximum penalty for rape, or an attempt to commit it, falls under the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years; whereas Jones, a repeat criminal on the sex offender registry, was handed a three-year sentence. With time already spent in custody, Jones will be eligible for parole on November 21.
The serial sex offender had committed similar crimes previously. Jones has a prior record for sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl in Germany, for which he served six years in a male prison there prior to being deported to Australia in 2018.
In 2021, Jones was again arrested after attempting to rape a woman as she was walking home on Lennox Street in Richmond. While pinning her down, Jones repeated: “Why won’t you lay down and have sex with me?”
The woman had been in the middle of a phone call with her mother at the time of the attack. She began screaming her location into the receiver before Jones was able to disconnect the call.
He then put his hands down the woman’s underwear and tried to pull down the victim’s jeans, but she was able to successfully fight him off as bystanders came rushing to her aid. Jones was ultimately detained after some bystanders chased him down as he tried to flee the scene.
“I didn’t do anything, it was her fault,” Jones told the court.
While Jones denied accountability for the attack, he was sentenced to three years and three months. In July of 2022, shortly after sentencing, he was placed in a women’s prison to serve his sentence. Within weeks, female inmates at the Dame Phyllis Frost Correctional Centre launched a petition to have him removed out of fears for their own safety.
The petitioners addressed the Minister for Corrections, the Department of Justice and Community Safety, Corrections Victoria and the Ombudsman when asking for the matter to be handled swiftly.
“We feel threatened, unsafe, distressed and traumatised with this current situation. Accordingly, we demand that (the inmate) be immediately removed from the Murray unit,” the petition read. “We consider this petition a matter of urgency and would therefore appreciate your prompt response.”
According to the petition, many women prisoners have been victims of sexual assault and as a result, many “carry significant trauma associated with this experience.”
In addition to the petition from female inmates, women’s rights advocates contacted several politicians about the issue. However, “not a single one has done a single thing about it,” noted campaigner Sall Grover.
Grover is an entrepreneur who found herself at the center of Australia’s gender identity debate after she was forced to defend herself in court over a period of years. Jason “Roxanne” Tickle filed a discrimination complaint through the Australian Human Rights Commission over being denied access to women-only application Giggle for Girls, which was founded by Grover. Tickle had been barred from using the female-only platform, intended as an “online refuge” for women, after Grover identified him as male based on a photo he submitted during the membership application process.
In September, The High Court of Australia denied an appeal lodged by Grover in the landmark case which ruled that “sex is changeable.” To date, Grover has had to raise over $1.5 million to cover legal costs, and confirmed to Reduxx that she has been ordered to pay a sum that will ultimately amount to around $500,000 in fees to compensate the legal team of the man who sued her.
Despite this, Grover has continued to raise awareness of the conflict between gender identity policies and women’s rights, and has now written to the Attorney General regarding Jones’ case. Grover is requesting a revision of the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA), which was altered in 2013 under the government of prime minister Julia Gillard. The revisions to the SDA made it unlawful under federal law to discriminate against a person on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status.
“Will the Government introduce amendments restoring clear, biological definitions of ‘man’ and ‘woman’ in the Sex Discrimination Act, so that the legal category of woman is reserved for adult human females and does not extend to men who claim a female identity?” Grover wrote. “Given more than a decade of practical consequences, does the Attorney-General accept that the time for SDA reform has long passed?”
While it is unclear how many trans-identified male transfers are currently housed at Dame Phyllis Frost, Reduxx has reported on another sex offender who is serving a shockingly lenient 4-year sentence there for creating horrific child sexual abuse material of his own child and distributing it to a pedophile lover.
“Autumn Tulip” Harper was in a BDSM relationship with an American sex offender, who he referred to as his “Master”. The offender encouraged Harper to sexually abuse his daughter for his own gratification, and praised him for doing so, calling him a “good girl,” and saying how “impressed” with him he was. Through Discord, Harper sent media of himself abusing the child, which he was said to have done on at least 19 different occasions.
Yet disturbingly, the acts of child sexual abuse committed by Harper were reframed during court proceedings as a form of validation of his “gender identity”. The judge in the case, Nola Karapanagiotidis, allowed Harper’s supposed experience with “gender dysphoria” and “transphobia” to serve as mitigating factors, and accepted the argument from the defense that he had abused his own daughter solely to be “validated… as a woman and a sexual person.”