BREAKING: Counter Terrorism Policing has taken the lead in the investigation into the case involving Ann Widdecombe, following what Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood described as the emergence of “new information.” The unexpected development marks a significant escalation in the investigation and raises fresh questions about the circumstances surrounding the case.
GB News’ Home and Security Editor Mark White breaks down what is known so far, explaining why the investigation has now been handed to specialist counter terrorism officers and what the change in leadership could mean for the direction of the inquiry. While many details remain unclear, the announcement is likely to intensify public and political scrutiny as investigators continue their work.
GB News’ Political Editor Christopher Hope also reacts to the news, describing the development as “absolutely huge.”
Souleymane D., a 25-year-old former after-school activity leader, placed documents in front of his face during his trial. Screengrab X
In a landmark ruling, the Paris criminal court convicted Souleymane D., a 25-year-old former after-school activity leader, of sexually assaulting a young girl aged between 3 and 5 years old. The verdict marks the first conviction of an activity leader in the ongoing Paris périscolaire scandal, which has involved multiple allegations of sexual and physical violence against children in municipal after-school programs and leisure centers.
The facts occurred between July 2023 and October 2025 at a leisure center on rue de l’Aqueduc in Paris’s 10th arrondissement, where Souleymane D. was responsible for the child. The girl reported the assaults to her parents. At trial, the accused denied the allegations, admitting only to “tickling” the child.
🇫🇷 JUST IN: A 25-year-old after-school activity leader has been convicted in Paris of sexually assaulting a child aged between 3 and 5.
Souleymane D. has just been sentenced 18 months in prison with a suspended sentence.
The court found Souleymane D. guilty of sexual assaults on a minor. It emphasized the coherence and consistency of the child’s testimony: she provided corroborative details separately to her father and mother, with no evidence of external influence from other proceedings.
In contrast, the court described the accused’s statements as “evolving” — he initially denied knowing the child, then any physical contact, before changing his account without a convincing explanation. Photographs recovered from his phone showed prohibited physical contacts with children, and the layout of the recreation area was deemed compatible with the alleged acts.
Souleymane D. has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, fully suspended and a 30-month probation. If he complies with his sentencing stipulations, he will not serve any prison time.
He has also been banned from professional activity involving contact with minors, is required to undergo psychological care, and will also be registered on the French sex offender registry (FIJAIS).
🇫🇷11 staff members are accused of sexual assaults and rapes at the Saint-Dominique nursery school, in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France.
"Look at that school behind us, that’s the school where my 3-year-old daughter was raped by several after-school care staff members,"… pic.twitter.com/unvnP8SUjM
This is the first conviction since the scandal gained prominence, following two recent acquittals of other former Paris animators accused of sexual assaults on minors. Those outcomes had sparked significant outrage among parents.
The victim’s family lawyer, Me Charles Héran, described the verdict as a relief: “We are glad that this child’s voice has been heard. This is a decision that changes the previous two [acquittals] and is therefore extremely encouraging for what follows… We are very satisfied with this decision. It’s what we were expecting. We sincerely hope that he will not appeal, that he will understand this decision, and that he will follow the care that has been imposed on him.”
Parents expressed mixed but largely critical sentiments toward the broader handling of such cases.
“I’m disgusted… despite everything, the children’s word is questioned,” said one parent.
Massive scandal involves 100 different schools
The case forms part of a larger scandal involving allegations of sexual and physical violence by municipal périscolaire after-school activity leaders in Paris public schools and leisure centers. The issue gained widespread attention in late 2025 and intensified in 2026, with investigations opened in more than 100 schools across all arrondissements.
The City of Paris has suspended 132 after-school activity leaders in 2026 alone, including 52 for suspicions of sexual or sexist violence. In addition, earlier data showed dozens of suspensions in 2025 for similar reasons.
Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire’s administration has responded with a €20 million action plan, including an independent commission of inquiry, improved reporting chains, and a citizens’ convention on the périscolaire organization and school programs.
Parents and #MeTooEcole organization members have repeatedly voiced frustration that children’s consistent accounts are often not deemed sufficient without additional material evidence, leading to perceptions of impunity.
He had been arrested a few hours earlier, before being released. According to the indictment, he is alleged to have attacked a woman he did not know on the Milan underground that afternoon and injured her in the face with a knife.This is the sequence of events involving Mohammed Saidi, the 27-year-old man who was arrested after the attack on a young woman at Duomo station. According to the reconstruction by the newspaper Corriere della Sera, the young man had already been arrested by the police the previous night for theft and for damaging several parked cars. Although a judge confirmed his arrest, he was subsequently released. A few hours later, the attack on the subway allegedly took place.
Mohammed Saidi, a 27-year-old Algerian national who is staying in Italy without valid residency status, is now accused of having injured the face of a 23-year-old woman of Moroccan origin with a blade. After his initial arrest and subsequent release, the young man is said, according to the first findings of the local police investigation, to have wandered aimlessly through the city before reaching the center of Milan.
It is alleged that he encountered the young woman on the platform of Underground Line 3. The incident took place in the afternoon on the platform at Duomo station in full view of dozens of people. According to investigators, the young woman was with friends when the man is said to have asked her why she was staring at him. She is said to have denied looking at him, but the exchange is said to have quickly escalated. According to investigators, the 27-year-old is said to have shouted: “Why are you staring at me like that? I’m a man and I’m a Muslim,” before punching her and then stabbing her in the face with a knife. Witnesses immediately raised the alarm, enabling the police to intervene quickly.
Two years after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, Emmanuel Macron was in Damascus to meet the new strongman, the former jihadist Ahmed al-Sharaa, who has never been a man of peace but rather the polished face of the most violent Islamism – the one that disfigured Syria under the banners of jihad and massacred Christians, Druze, and Alawites in collusion with Turkish and Qatari protectors.
The imposing door of the Great Umayyad Mosque opened with a theatrical creak. Macron and his host, al-Sharaa, removed their shoes and entered, followed by the delegations. Built 1,300 years ago on the site of a church, the mosque houses the relics of St. John the Baptist and the tomb of Saladin. Beneath Byzantine-era frescoes, the two signed energy and trade agreements.
Two devices meanwhile exploded near the Four Seasons Hotel where the French president had stayed. “Macron is safe,” the Élysée immediately reassured.
It is not a travel incident, but the background noise of a Middle East that has never stopped being itself. Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!
Macron embodies progressivism in sunglasses, believing he can tame radical Islam with symbolic gestures and energy subcontracts. But the Umayyad mosque, built on the ruins of a church, reminds him that Islamic conquest is never just a metaphor and that every Islamic conquest replaces rather than coexists.
France, which invented raison d’État, seems to have replaced it with raison du jour – changeable as alliances of convenience – and raison du ventre.
A few weeks ago, the same Macron who shakes blood-soaked hands in Damascus had ordered the Paris military fair to obscure the Israeli pavilion. Will the same weapons that protect Macron’s plane – taking him first to the NATO summit in Ankara and then safely back to Paris – be the ones used?
Meanwhile, Merz’s Germany continued to install Israeli anti-missile batteries on its own territory, and America was considering moving its Gulf bases – targeted by Iran – to Israel.
Merz knows that next time the Iranians will aim their missiles at Europe; America relies on the only true Western outpost in the Middle East, a region where bombs explode near the hotels of visiting European presidents.
Without a moral and material awakening, Europe will become what it already accepts itself as being: a province of Islamism that has learned to dress it up with Hermès ties.
At this point, I prefer one Javier Milei to ten Macrons – Milei is the Argentine president who recently said:
“Let us keep this firmly in mind: Israel is the bulwark of the West. The fight against Israel – if Israel falls – will then reach the West”.
Those who do not defend their outposts today will have to defend their capitals tomorrow.
An Afghan migrant who raped a schoolgirl is set to be released from jail early and let loose on Britain’s streets under Labour’s release scheme.
Parmeet Khurana was jailed for nine years in 2022 for raping the 17-year-old victim in 2021 and perverting the course of justice.
He lived in Austria before arriving in the UK – but now Britain is locked in a battle with Austria’s top officials to deport the sex offender.
Labour promised the victim their attempt to remove her attacker from the UK was being treated as their “highest priority” – but the vow appears to have fallen through.
As a result, the victim’s mother furiously raged against her daughter’s attacker being allowed to run rampant on Britain’s streets.
“It seems utterly unacceptable that a child rapist should be allowed early release under any circumstances,” she told The Sun.
“It says to victims that they are not important, that their life-long legacy of fear and trauma does not matter.
“And it allows potentially dangerous offenders back onto our streets before they should be.”
She added the release of guilty perpetrators was a “travesty of justice”, especially given it is “so difficult” to charge a defendant in a rape case.
Current legislation allows rapists to be considered for release as soon as they serve two-thirds of their sentence.
But Labour is pursuing new legislation which will allow sex offenders, including paedophiles and rapists, to run free having only fulfilled half their sentence.
Up to 6,000 criminals convicted of manslaughter, rape and sexual assault could be released early as part of Labour’s prison scheme.
The first group of 700 prisoners will be released in September, with a similar number of criminals freed for each of the next nine months in a staggered release schedule.
The victim was assured by the Government that changes were being made with the “aim of improving the effectiveness of sentencing and better managing offenders in the community”.
The letter added that the information “may be difficult” for the victim and added they recognised the “lasting impact the offence may have had on you”.
Khurana is being freed four years after his conviction, having only served around 45 per cent of his prison term, thanks to Labour’s reforms.
The UK Borders Act 2007 demands a Deportation Order after the conviction of a foreign national and has been handed a jail sentence for 12 months or more.
Back in March of last year, former Minister for Border Security and Asylum, Dame Angela Eagle, told the family the Home Office was continuing to pursue Khurana’s deportation.
It read: “I can confirm that the Home Office continues to pursue PK’s deportation from the UK, however his is a complex case that requires us to liaise with the Austrian authorities regarding his status in Austria prior to his arrival in the UK, and this action is ongoing.”
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Public safety and supporting victims is our top priority.
“Offenders who a judge has deemed the most dangerous are automatically blocked from early release, and prisoners who behave badly while behind bars face being locked up for longer.
“Anyone who is released faces tough rules such as restrictions on their movements, tagging, being banned from attending public events, pubs and clubs, backed by our record £700million investment into probation and 1,300 extra probation officers.”
President of the Rassemblement National Parliamentary Group, Marine Le Pen, and President of the French Rassemblement National (RN), Jordan Bardella. Riposte Laique
National Rally leader Marine Le Pen would win next year’s French presidential election against any opponent, according to a survey conducted after it was revealed this week that she would be eligible to campaign to replace Emmanuel Macron in the Élysée Palace.
This week, the Paris Court of Appeals reduced the sentence against three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen over alleged misuse of EU Parliament funds. Critically, the court cut the time barring her from standing in any European election to allow for the National Rally (RN) leader to stand in the French presidential election next April.
A cloud still hangs over her candidacy, with the court sentencing her to a three-year prison sentence, two years of which were suspended and one year of which is intended to be served under house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor. However, the ruling allowed for Le Pen to appeal further to the Court of Cassation, the supreme court in such cases, meaning that her innocence is once again presumed and she will not have to serve any aspect of the sentence until the appeal is completed.
Although her opponents have already sought to exploit the appellate court conviction, it does not appear that voters view the issue as critical, with a survey conducted by Ifop finding that Le Pen stands head and shoulders above her top competitors in both rounds of the two-round system, Le Journal du Dimanchereported.
Regardless of whether the centrist Macron bloc is represented by former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal or by Mayor of Le Havre Édouard Philippe, Le Pen would win the first round of voting with 36 per cent. If Attal were the primary establishment candidate, he would secure only 15 per cent of the vote, while Philippe would fare slightly better at 19 per cent.
While the two-round system has traditionally enabled neo-liberal forces to sideline populist candidates, including Le Pen on multiple occasions, with no transcendent figure such as Emmanuel Macron to unite the left and centrist wings, it appears the system may play into the National Rally’s hand.
According to the survey, the RN leader would defeat Philippe by 54 to 46 per cent, Attal by 55 to 45 per cent, and against far-left La France Insoumise (France in Rebellion/LFI) leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon by 70 per cent to 30 per cent.
The poll found that against either Philippe or Attal, Le Pen would benefit from other right-wing voters coming to her cause, with 46 per cent or 53 per cent of Les Républicains voters rallying to her side, respectively. This rises to 90 per cent of fellow right-wing voters in the unlikely event of Mélenchon reaching the second round.
Ban on Le Pen Running for French Presidential Election Lifted, But With a Catchhttps://t.co/o0BTfk7jq4
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 7, 2026
In an interview over the weekend with Le JDD, Le Pen said: “From now on, I am campaigning to convince the French, to talk to them about their lives, their security, their purchasing power, the rebirth of the country. My opponents would like this campaign to be judicial. I want it to be democratic, and I will not let anyone confiscate this presidential election from the French.”
Despite some arguing that the National Rally would fare better if Le Pen were banned from running, given the rising popularity of her 30-year-old deputy Jordan Bardella, the RN leaders put on a unified front, pitching themselves as a joint ticket.
“There is complete clarity between Jordan and me on this subject. What we say publicly, we say to each other privately. It has always been clear that if I could run for the presidential election, I would be the natural candidate of our camp,” Le Pen said. “And we will present to the French this duo in which I deeply believe: a clear, efficient, complementary, solid, and balanced duo. That is our strength. I even believe that today, we are in the best position to approach this presidential election, precisely because, after the Court of Appeal’s decision, this duo is not only maintained but strengthened.”
Bardella expressed similar sentiments in an interview with Le Figaro, saying that he “entered politics out of duty, not personal ambition.”
“It has always been agreed that if Marine Le Pen runs for the presidential election in 2027, she will find my loyalty, help, and support by her side. Today, the fate of France rests in her hands. It is up to me to help her win. I will devote all my energy to her victory,” he said.
Bardella explained that, as Le Pen would look to “preside” over France as its president, while he would “govern” the country as prime minister, the two would “offer the nation the renaissance it awaits.”
Part of this strategy, Bardella said, would be for him to form a government of “national unity” that brings members of other parties into the fold to help bring about a national revival. This would start with Éric Ciotti, the former leader of Les Républicains, who formed the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party after breaking from his old party to support Le Pen in 2024.
“The door will always be open. Our first ambition will be to establish a national unity government that will not be composed exclusively of executives or parliamentarians from the RN. We have already built this new political architecture hand in hand with our allies from the UDR of Éric Ciotti. We will continue to do so,” Bardella said.
The French populist leader also stressed that there must be an alliance between the “patriotic elite” in Paris and the working and middle classes throughout the country to build a national base “to recreate the conditions for French unity and the rebirth of our nation.”
Speaking at the Second Annual New Culture Forum Literary Festival in London (2026), Martin Plaut and Lord Biggar discuss the true history of slavery, a global reality that dates back thousands of years.
Martin Plaut is a journalist and academic specialising in conflicts in Africa, especially the Horn of Africa. He worked as a BBC News journalist from 1984 to 2012 and is a member of Chatham House. As of 2019, Plaut was a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies of the University of London.
Martin is the author of “Unbroken Chains: A 5,000-Year History of African Enslavement”.
Nigel, Lord Biggar is an Anglican priest, theologian, ethicist, and life peer. From 2007 to 2022, he was Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at the University of Oxford.
Nigel is the author of “Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning” and “Reparations: The Tyranny of Imaginary Guilt “
Police investigating the death of former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe have released a 26-year-old man who had been arrested on suspicion of murder and say he is no longer part of the inquiry. The 78-year-old was found with serious injuries at her Devon home, but detectives have stressed there is currently no evidence of a terrorist or political motive. Officers are continuing house-to-house inquiries and reviewing footage as they search for answers, while politicians and friends pay tribute to one of Britain’s most outspoken public figures.
Mark Dolan speaks with former Met police officer, Roy Ramm.
A comprehensive investigation published in The Australian magazine presents a series of troubling testimonies regarding antisemitism in the Australian healthcare system since the October 7, 2023, attack.
As part of the investigation, more than 30 doctors, nurses, midwives, and other healthcare professionals were interviewed. They claimed that the atmosphere toward Jews within the healthcare system had deteriorated to an unprecedented level, to the point of harming patient safety and even potentially endangering lives.
One of the most prominent examples cited in the investigation was the cancellation of a trauma medicine conference that was scheduled to take place in Perth. The conference was set to feature Brig. Gen. (res.) Dr. Alon Glazberg, a former Chief Medical Officer of the IDF, who was due to present Israeli-developed methods for treating victims of gunshot wounds and blast injuries.
After groups of pro-Palestinian doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers threatened to hold protests against his participation, the organizers decided to cancel the conference.
Trauma specialists interviewed for the investigation argued that the cancellation prevented Australian medical teams from learning lifesaving techniques from someone with extensive experience treating mass-casualty events. One of them said that the knowledge that was supposed to be presented could have helped prepare medical personnel for dealing with severe incidents, including the Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney.
According to the testimonies, since October 7, anti-Israel political activity within the healthcare system has expanded. The interviewees claimed that it went beyond political expression and became antisemitism directed at Jews. They said that hospitals and clinics have, in some cases, become arenas for ideological battles, undermining the fundamental principle that the welfare of the patient must come before any other consideration.
At the same time, a dispute is taking place in Australia over the decision by the healthcare professions regulator to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. More than 1,400 healthcare workers signed an open letter opposing the move, citing, among other reasons, their objection to clauses concerning denying Israel’s right to exist and applying different standards to it compared with other countries.
Doctors and nurses interviewed for the investigation claimed that in recent years their professional status has been used to spread antisemitic messages, Hamas propaganda, and even expressions of support for the terrorist organization.
According to their accounts, employees arrived at hospitals wearing protest symbols, and anti-Israel stickers were placed in several institutions. At Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, it was alleged that such stickers were placed near the bed of an elderly Jewish patient in the hours before his death.
The investigation also found, according to the report, social media posts by doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers containing hateful rhetoric, Holocaust comparisons, antisemitic content, and support for terrorist organizations. A Jewish doctor said that colleagues had shared Nazi symbols and caricatures of Jews while replacing the word “Jews” with the word “Zionists.”
The most serious testimonies concerned medical treatment itself. Several Jewish patients said they experienced repeated and painful attempts to insert IV lines that, they claimed, deviated from accepted procedures. In the two cases presented in the investigation, it was alleged that the same staff member made four insertion attempts, despite hospital nurses stating that the protocol allows a maximum of two attempts by the same practitioner.
The authors of the investigation noted that it is difficult to prove deliberate intent, but emphasized that the complaint appeared in multiple independent testimonies.
Another testimony came from a midwife, who described a Jewish woman in labor who, according to her account, was left for hours after a cesarean section while in pain, without pain medication, lying in a pool of blood beside her crying newborn. She claimed that when a nurse eventually entered the room, the nurse displayed a cold and lacking-compassion attitude toward the patient.
Another patient said that during her stay in an intensive care unit, a nurse gave her a “lecture” in which the Holocaust and the events of October 7 were denied. Jewish medical students and resident doctors also testified about social exclusion, verbal attacks, and fears of filing complaints because it could harm their professional advancement.
In contrast, Jewish doctors, nurses, and pro-Israel healthcare workers said that coordinated complaints were filed against them after they expressed support for Israel or shared information contradicting claims that Israel was committing genocide. Some of them even received warnings from the regulatory authority.
According to the interviewees, Jewish employees in the healthcare system found themselves isolated, attacked, or excluded because of their identity. Some said they chose to leave their jobs after claiming that hospital administrations failed to address complaints they had submitted regarding incitement and antisemitism by colleagues.
According to data from the regulatory authority, between July 2023 and the end of February this year, 124 complaints related to antisemitism were received, alongside 97 complaints related to Islamophobia.
The investigation concludes with the testimony of a Jewish pediatrician who left Australia and moved to work in Israel, saying that the atmosphere in the country had become unbearable for Jews. She said that at the hospital where she now works, Jewish, Arab, Muslim, Christian, and Druze doctors and nurses treat every patient together regardless of identity, emphasizing that the welfare of the patient must remain the highest principle of any healthcare system.
An inmate in Indiana serving a life sentence for killing an infant has launched a federal lawsuit demanding taxpayer-funded transsexual surgeries. Cory Wallace, who refers to himself as both Nikki Wallace and Astrid Allison, brutally physically abused his 4-month-old son, resulting in the infant’s death.
Wallace has now teamed up with the ACLU to challenge a 2023 statute prohibiting the Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) from utilizing state or federal resources to facilitate or fund surgical gender-reassignment procedures for inmates.
In 2016, Wallace was convicted of battery and negligence resulting in the death of his infant son, Jensen, and sentenced to 72 years in prison. The Delaware County Court heard that Wallace failed to seek medical treatment for the infant after the child suffered what proved to be fatal head injuries.
After realizing the baby had died, Wallace set fire to the boy’s room in an attempt to cover up what he had done.
During sentencing, Judge Marianne Vorhees remarked: “Baby Jensen lived almost every day of his life in pain, hunger and distress,” and noted the many injuries Jensen had suffered prior to his death — including broken ribs, torn tissue in his mouth, and cuts and scrapes all over his body.
On February 10, 2015, Wallace called 911 to report that their house was on fire and that the infant was trapped inside. Only four minutes would elapse from the time of his call until firefighters removed the child from the home, but the boy was already dead.
The forensic pathologist who conducted Jensen Wallace’s autopsy concluded that the infant had died before the fire started, and noted several serious injuries which were inflicted by abuse, including two fractured ribs — one which was recent, and another which had been healing. Additionally, an investigator for the Muncie Fire Department concluded, upon investigation, that the fire was intentionally set.
Booking photo of Cory M. Wallace provided by Indiana Department of Corrections
Judge Vorhees said for those who attended the trial, viewing images of the infant’s corpse was “totally surreal, an out-of-body experience … like watching the worst horror movie you could imagine.” The judge emphasized that in her 14 years on the bench, she had “never seen such horrible injuries inflicted on a child, let alone a baby.”
In his defense, Wallace attempted to blame his wife Sheryl for the infant’s abuse and death. For her role, the mother was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to neglect of a dependent resulting in death.
Jensen’s grave at Elm Ridge Memorial Park initially had no tombstone.
An investigation by a local news team revealed that the Department of Child Services (DCS) had been warned about Wallace abusing and neglecting children as far back as 2012.
Since 2023, Wallace has filed several complaints against the IDOC on the basis of his “gender identity”. The convicted baby killer claims that he “has identified as female” since the age of 10. The claims began after the state DOC Health Care Services Directive No. 2.17A took effect in 2022, which established procedures for diagnosing gender dysphoria and evaluating prisoners for “gender-affirming surgeries” utilizing Standards of Care published by lobby group the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).
In 2023, Wallace began referring to himself as “Nikki” in legal and administrative records.
On April 18, he filed a petition to change the gender marker on his birth certificate to female. However, in July, the Madison Circuit Court dismissed the petition without a hearing, citing policy which restricts inmates from altering identity documents while serving out a criminal sentence for purposes of public safety.
In the same month that Wallace applied for a legal sex change on his birth certificate, Governor Eric Holcomb signed House Bill 1569 into law, which states: The department may not authorize the payment of any money, the use of any state resources, or the payment of any federal money administered by the state to provide or facilitate sexual reassignment surgery to an offender patient.” The law came into effect on July 1.
On July 3, Wallace filed a legal complaint demanding a hefty payout of $500,000 as compensation for not having been granted state-funded cosmetic surgeries. “In June 2023, Miss Wallace was informed by Mental Health Staff that she would not be receiving Sexual Reassignment Surgical Evaluation… This amounts to Deliberate Indifference, thus violating her Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause to basic medical care.”
On April 2, 2024, ACLU of Indiana attorneys Gavin Rose, Kenneth Falk, and Stevie Pactor filed a discrimination lawsuit against the IDOC demanding that Wallace be provided with “sexual reassignment surgery,” and seeking to overturn the state law banning public funds being spent on “gender-affirming” surgeries for inmates.
As is typical of lawsuits filed on behalf of male inmates claiming a gender identity, the ACLU claims that denying Wallace surgeries and legal recognition of womanhood is a violation of his civil rights – specifically, the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, which prohibit “cruel and unusual punishment” and discrimination.
According to the complaint, Wallace received a diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” in 2020, and the following year, he was prescribed estrogen, the female hormone, and spironolactone, an anti-androgen hormone that suppresses testosterone.
“With the hormones she has developed breasts and her body fat has changed to contour her body like a birth-assigned female,” reads Wallace’s 2024 complaint. The lawsuit also revealed that Wallace had been provided with bras and makeup by the IDOC so that he could “live as a female to the greatest extent possible.”
“Her penis and testicles absolutely disgust her,” reads the ACLU complaint. “She cannot go to the bathroom without thinking of castrating herself. She wishes to have an orchiectomy, which would remove her testicles, and a vaginoplasty, which would surgically create a vagina in place of her penis.”
The ACLU compares castrating Wallace and creating an orifice in place of his penis to surgical treatments performed on women who have undergone treatments for cancer.
From a court filing by the ACLU.
By January 2026, federal court records formally recognized his preferred name in filings, listing him as “Nikki Wallace a.k.a. Cory Wallace”. Confusingly, he has also recently taken the name “Astrid Allison,” as well as “Wayne Allison,” and court documents use a variation of all four names to refer to him.
As previously revealed by Reduxx, another trans-identified male convicted of the grisly murder of an infant in the state of Indiana was recently released on parole a full 30 years early. Jonathan Richardson, who now uses the name Autumn Cordellioné, was convicted in 2002 after his 11-month-old stepdaughter died in his care while her mother was at work. Having served less than half of his 55-year sentence, Richardson was quietly released in late December of 2025.
In 2023, the ACLU of Indiana – and the same attorneys who are currently representing Wallace – filed a legal complaint on behalf of Richardson claiming that the IDOC was subjecting him to “cruel and unusual punishment” by denying him the various plastic surgeries he had demanded.
In the suit, ACLU lawyers refer to Richardson as an “adult transgender female prisoner confined in a male institution,” and complains that “the total ban on gender-affirming surgery violates [his] right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.”
Among a list of demands prepared by Richardson and presented as evidence in court was a document titled “Surgeries to Reach My Ideal Self.” The first item on the list, the court heard, was a “vagina,” followed by: breast implants, a brow lift, a brow reduction, a tummy tuck, gluteal implants (BBL), a uterus transplant, hair removal, and wigs.
🚨EXCLUSIVE🚨
A trans-identified male convicted of murdering a baby has been quietly released from prison 30 YEARS EARLY.
Jonathan "Autumn Cordellioné" Richardson was turned loose in Evansville, Indiana, with no notice given to prosecutors or the public.https://t.co/DZbbXPe6Ys
However, during court proceedings Richardson stated that he had amended his demands to two surgeries, an orchiectomy and a penile inversion.
The 2023 ACLU lawsuit advocating for Richardson’s requested surgeries was successful the following year, when the United States District Court of Indiana ruled that Richardson had been subjected to “cruel and unusual punishment” by being denied the various plastic surgeries he had demanded.
The mother of the baby girl Richardson strangled to death opposed his legal bid to obtain surgery. Linda Thomas submitted a brief statement expressing her concern that his identity may be concealed from her when he is released from prison.
“On the day he murdered my child, I personally observed Plaintiff with a fresh bleeding tattoo of my child’s name on his arm while I was at the hospital that evening,” Thomas said. “I live in fear for myself and my children of the day [Richardson] is released from prison, which largely increases at the thought that [his] identity may be concealed upon release.”
ACLU attorneys under the leadership of Kenneth Falk attempted to have Thomas’ testimony dismissed as court evidence on the basis that “Ms. Cordellioné objected to the relevance of this declaration.”
During his deposition, Richardson told the legal counsel for the IDOC, Alex Carlisle, that in 2018, he had been informed about gender identity by another male inmate at CIF who went by the name of “Pearl.” According to Richardson, Pearl had brought in pamphlets from California state prisons that explained the concept of “gender identity” and introduced to him, for the first time, the idea of taking feminizing hormones.
“I always knew I was a girl, didn’t know that term applied. Because until I talked to Pearl I didn’t even really know transgender was the name for it. I was hearing at the time that it was transsexualism and that didn’t seem to fit me because it was apparently people that like to wear girl clothes to have sex,” Richardson said in his deposition.
The ACLU has launched a legal complaint against the Indiana Department of Corrections on behalf of a transgender inmate they say was denied "gender affirming" surgeries.
Jonathan Richardson, also known as Autumn Cordellioné, murdered a baby.https://t.co/SFP7UkxR5X
According to social media posts made by Richardson, the two trans-identified males who were both convicted of killing infants are in a romantic relationship.
“I can’t sleep because I miss my trans significant other,” Richardson states in a video he posted to Instagram. “I call her my wife, but we’re not legally married. Her name’s Nikki, she’s beautiful. We spent so much time in the cell holding each other,” Richardson says, referring to Wallace.
In the video Richardson explains how he met Wallace after having been previously in a sexual relationship with the president of the Sureños, also known as the Sur 13 gang. Referring to Wallace with feminine pronouns, Richardson says, “She ended up moving in to the cell with me… The first night she moved in, I was like, ‘Want me to suck your d**k?’”
Richardson has made multiple images using AI generators, including images which imagine himself and Wallace with two young sons. Both men have tattoos bearing the names of the infants they killed.
