A violent kidnapper who tried to argue that his “transgender” status wasn’t properly taken into account during his sentencing has had his appeal rejected.
Sydney man Megan Moss, 43, who was referred to with female personal pronouns in court documents despite being a biological male, was convicted of aggravated kidnapping – for detaining and injuring a man and forcing him to transfer him $10,000 – after a late guilty plea in February 2024.
He was sentenced to four years and six months’ jail with a non-parole period of two years and three months and incarcerated in a male prison, but appealed claiming the District Court of New South Wales sentencing judge erred in finding he did not have “transgender difficulties” which “wreaked havoc” on his life.
The appeal made reference to a Victoria County Court case where a judge took into account in sentencing a violent, drug and alcohol-abusing serial arsonist’s difficult childhood which included being sexually abused by her biological father along with issues with community acceptance of her “transgender status”.
The sentencing judge also referred to the case, but found that Moss did not have a difficult and dysfunctional childhood and adolescence, did not endure the aforementioned “transgender difficulties”, and that his community was not unaccepting of “people who feel they have been born into the wrong body”.
Three Court of Criminal Appeal judges found on Friday that the sentencing judge did in fact take Moss’s “identification as a transgender person” into account, pointing out that he called it a “significant feature” in light of Moss being abused in a male prison while on remand and facing imprisonment in a male facility.
They further found that Moss had not given evidence of difficulties in his childhood or adolescence, and noted that he said he started “transitioning” by taking hormones in late 2018, at the age of 36.
Moss also told a psychologist he was the victim of a sexual assault by a man when he was 16, and suffered a self-inflicted genital injury at age eight along with suicidal and self-harm ideation from about the same age, but appeal judges ruled those experiences did not necessitate the findings sought in the appeal.
The psychologist’s report also stated that Moss “described her immediate family to be loving and close knit” and that she “denied any neglect or abuse … at home”.
“This application does not come close to making out any miscarriage of justice or unfairness to warrant upholding the appeal were leave to be granted,” the appeal judgement read, with all three judges in agreement.
Header image: Left, right, Megan Moss (Facebook).
