A Guardian writer has hit back at the newspaper for failing to disclose a cat killer who murdered a stranger was transgender.
Journalist Louise Tickle accused the newspaper of "deceiving its readers" after it failed to mention Scarlet Blake was a trans woman.
The 26-year-old was found guilty last week of murdering Jorge Martin Carreno in July 2021 on his way home from a night out.
The incident took place four months after Blake replicated the Netflix documentary, Don't F*** With Cats, by killing a cat using a blender.
The newspaper did not originally disclose that Scarlet Blake was transgender
PA/Thames Valley Police
In an open letter to Guardian editor Katharine Viner, Tickle said: "I’ve contributed to the Guardian for nearly two and a half decades.
"But as a result of an utterly dismaying news piece published on Friday, I cannot do so again until I’m confident that the Guardian is able to demonstrate that its reporters, editors and management understand what constitutes a fact, and stops deceiving its readers.
"The headline used the word 'woman' and nowhere in the piece did I pick up any reference to the killer being transgender.
"My understanding is that I didn’t just miss the word 'transgender' – that word was not included in the piece. So, as far as I – and as far as any of your other readers were concerned that day – a woman had committed an extraordinarily depraved and sexually motivated murder of a man, after having carried out a hideous act of animal cruelty."
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The sentencing into Scarlet Blake began at Oxford Crown Court
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Tickle explained that upon reading the article online last Friday, she was left unaware that Blake was a "male killer."
She added: “The headline was altered to remove the word ‘woman’ and the word ‘transgender’ was added, in the fifth paragraph down (after references to ‘woman’ and ‘she’ in the text above).
"Many people will not read that far, and so Guardian readers are still being led to believe that a woman has committed this crime."
She accused The Guardian of "actively deceiving readers into believing that there is a sudden upsurge in women engaged in violent, homicidal and sexually motivated criminality."
She added: "It is disgraceful. There is no excuse for it. Sometimes people suggest that the anger around this kind of factually inaccurate reporting is overblown, performative, unkind, or petty. It is not."
A Guardian spokesperson said: "This article was updated on February 23, 2024 to add further details and biographical information, including reference to Scarlet Blake’s transgender identity, which were not included in the agency copy on which our initial version relied."
Earlier today, Blake was sentenced for life - with a minimum of 24 years - at Oxford Crown Court.
Sentencing, Justice Chamberlain KC said Blake: "Had an obsession with harm and death...the decision to kill was entirely yours...you were completely indifferent to this suffering."