It’s one of the more spectacular media-frenzy trials in a country known for having no shortage of them.
In the United Kingdom, a former Conservative member of Parliament named Katie Wallis — actually a man born with the name Jamie Wallis, who made headlines as the “first transgender politician” in the country — is facing charges of harassing his ex-wife.
His defense? Mental illness. But weren’t we told that transgenderism wasn’t a mental illness, but just how you were born?
Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that — but the sordid tale indicates just how far the media has to go now to pretend that gender dysphoria and attempting to transition to another sex don’t present serious problems.
According to the BBC, Wallis represented Bridgend in Wales from 2019 to 2024, when he did not stand for re-election amid the Tories’ wipeout at the hands of Labour.
During his one parliamentary term, he “came out” as transgender in 2022, although the circumstances were indeed sketchy.
Wallis had been under scrutiny after fleeing the scene of an auto accident in 2021 where he fled the scene. From a July 2022 BBC report on the auto accident.
On Monday, Cardiff Magistrates’ Court heard how witnesses said Wallis left the scene after crashing his Mercedes into a lamppost on 28 November.
He was wearing a black leather mini-skirt and high heels and told the court he feared he was going to be attacked.
Residents Adrian Watson and Natalie Webb were at a birthday party, when they heard a “very loud bang, significantly louder than a domestic firework” on the street at about 01:00 GMT.
Mr Watson said he looked inside the car and saw “a white male wearing a white long-sleeve top which was tight to the body, a black leather PVC mini-skirt, tights, dark shoes with a high heel and a pearl necklace.”
That was Wallis, who said that he had fled the scene due to the fact that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after being raped a month before the crash, and said he was afraid he’d be “raped, killed or kidnapped” after the accident.
Judge Tan Ikram, who presided over the case, didn’t buy it: “When I watched him give evidence it seemed to me he [was] fitting his own behavior around the behavior of PTSD, and his actions on that night does not suggest he was overwhelmed and acting out of fear that night.”
The judge said he “didn’t find the defendant credible” and fined him £2,500 as well as revoking his license for six months. While Wallis had other run-ins with the law over his driving, this was the first he blamed on his trans-ness and rape.
“I’m trans. Or to be more accurate, I want to be,” he said in a March 30, 2022, statement amid the furor (or “furore,” in that part of the world) over his Mercedes/mini-skirt incident.
“I’ve been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and I’ve felt this way since I was a very young child. I had no intention of ever sharing this with you. I always imagined I would leave politics well before I ever said this out loud.
“There was a close call in April 2020 when someone Blackmailed me, outed me to my father and sent photographs to other family members. He wanted £50,000 to keep quiet. The police were so supportive, so understanding and on this occasion the system worked. He pled guilty and was sentenced to 2yrs and 9mnths in prison.”
He went on to say that he thought he could balance being a Tory MP and hiding a double life was something that he was “up for,” but it turns out he wasn’t.
“A few months back, in September, I ‘hooked up’ with someone who I met online and when I chose to say ‘no’ on the basis that he wouldn’t wear a condom he chose to rape me. I have not been myself since this incident and I don’t think I will ever recover. It is not something you ever forget, and it is not something you ever move on from.
“Since then things have really taken a tumble. I am not OK.”
We want to emphasize from the outset that, as much as quite a bit of this tale sounds like fabulism, we do feel sympathy for Mr. Wallis. He is not a well man, as we can emphasize. But first: He is a man. That much is clear. In fact, he seems to confirm it himself: “I’m trans. Or to be more accurate, I want to be.”
Note the verb: “want.” He seems enough in compos mentis to understand that he’s a man who has some very serious mental issues caused by living a disordered double life. It is currently fashionable to say that the mental illness comes from the repression of these urges, not the expression of them. At least at this point, he seems to have the self-awareness to have understood that it’s the other way around. Apparently not now.
You’re telling me, with a straight face, that this man literally “changed sex”? ????????♀️
The former MP Jamie (“Katie”) Wallis has now been accused of stalking his ex-wife.???? pic.twitter.com/34oSN4cSDL
— Lois McLatchie Miller (@LoisMcLatch) May 19, 2025
Mr. Wallis, now 40, was quiet after his electoral bow-out until earlier this year, when he was charged with harassing his former wife, Rebecca Wallis, with whom he has two children.
From the New York Post, on Tuesday: “The 40-year-old ex-lawmaker was spotted arriving at a court in Cardiff donning a blue cardigan — complete with red nails and lipstick — to enter a not-guilty plea.
“Wallis, who has two kids with the ex, allegedly started bombarding her with unwanted phone calls, texts and voice notes in February and March, prosecutors said.”
The case was put on hold until June after the judge declared that, given the evidence presented, he didn’t have time to make a decision due to the complex nature of Wallis’ mental state, saying “I do not believe the trial can be concluded in the time allocated before me,” according to Wales Online.
The live updates from the trial indicated things were not going smoothly. Here’s one from 11:53 a.m., titled “Defendant stumbles.”
Wallis appeared uncomfortable behind the glass partition of the dock, while standing to state a not-guilty plea. The judge asked: “Are you alright? You stumbled a little then.”
Wallis replied: “I’m okay.”
[His lawyer Narita] Bahra told the judge her client suffers from claustrophobia.
One update later — less than a minute later, in fact — Bahra answered the judge when asked why Wallis’ team had not filed key court documents.
Bahra said that Wallis, to whom she referred with female pronouns, “is now in a position to be well enough to engage … She was not always in that position. She has significant mental health issues. I am pleased to say she is well enough to engage with all of us now. She previously wasn’t compos mentis to understand and not in a position to sign off [on documents].”
It’s worth noting that Wallis is still technically Jamie Wallis, having not changed his name officially.
“Legally I am known as Jamie, but I prefer to be known as Katie,” he told the court, according to the BBC.
The prosecutor, Simone Walsh, laid out the case pretty neatly a few minutes later.
“The defendant and the victim were in a relationship for over 15 years,” she told the court. “The parties separated in 2020 and their divorce was finalized in 2024. The Crown will say that following the victim informing the defendant of a new relationship, the defendant’s behavior has become harassing in nature. The frequency, nature and contents of the messages and voicemails amounted to harassment of the victim.
“Despite being arrested on February 28 and released on police bail, the defendant has continued to send messages to the victim,” she added.
However, here’s where Wallis becomes a lefty cause célèbre: See, it wasn’t the fact that he was mentally ill that caused him to get into trouble with his ex-wife, it was the fact that she didn’t accept that he “spiraled” after she refused to accept he was a she.
“The complainant has chosen what messages to provide to police, and she hasn’t provided the full exchange with [her former husband],” his lawyer said.
Jamie Wallis, Bahra contended, “was going through a very important stage of his transition process, which was to come out full-time, and the complainant took issue with that. The complainant did not want [him] to come out full-time as transgender.”
“This involved announcing himself as a woman to the world, and dressing as a woman full-time,” she added, saying he saw Rebecca as his “only emotional support,” which is why he was “reaching out to her.”
A little under an hour after Rebecca Wallis testified behind a felt screen — something that can happen in British courtrooms for privacy from defendants — the judge adjourned until June.
“I have to be realistic in my time estimate,” he said. “I am acutely aware a witness is at court today to give evidence. I am aware of the associated stresses.”
And stresses there were. It’s also worth noting that Bahra had to apologize for the hearing starting late because her client hid in a store: “a member of the press started to follow him [sic] and he took haven in Tesco Express.” (Basically a mini version of Britain’s take on Walmart.)
Note that even Bahra refers to him as “him,” and Wales Online had to correct his own lawyer, whom they referred to in the piece as a “top London barrister.” Smart enough of a barrister, apparently, to know XY from XX.
While Wallis’ serious issues with the law mitigate any sympathy we might feel for him, we ought to feel some: This is a man who not only has grave mental health issues that are externally evident to anyone who bothers to look, he’s been lied to by the entire world.
But of course, the explanation is always the same: He fled the scene of a car crash because he’s transgendered with PTSD. He harassed his wife because she didn’t accept his desire to become a woman and “spiraled” into mental illness. It’s always the external world imposing its harsh, cruel standards on Mr. Wallis, not the other way around. And it has to be reported dispassionately that way, even with a judge saying he didn’t buy it in the car-crash scenario, because to say otherwise would be to indicate that transgenderism itself is the mental health issue.
It is as clear as day to anyone who does not put on glasses that are intentionally befogged. This is a man who is in desperate need of intervention — and that intervention is not gender transitioning, but serious inpatient care. In a humane society, he would get it. In the West in 2025, we go along with the fiction that he is undergoing some speed bumps while becoming a she, and that’s the end of that. How, pray tell, is that humane?
This is a sick person, and it is quite clear what part of that sickness is. But we cannot say it, because to point out that he himself has essentially blamed transgenderism for incidents caused by being mentally unwell is to identify gender dysphoria as a malady to be treated, not an identity to be embraced. Wallis needs to be held to account for his actions, don’t get us wrong — but he has been failed by trans activists who won’t tell him what ails him because, in doing so, they would have to admit they were wrong about being able to pick your gender from the start.
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