A murderer serving life in Saughton for battering a man to death is calling for gender reassignment surgery on the NHS while behind bars.
Paris Green has spent the past decade in prison after she was jailed for life for murdering Robert Shankland at a flat in Fife. Green tied up and battered her 45-year-old victim to death alongside two accomplices in a cruel and barbaric assault which a judge said "beggared belief".
Green has come out publicly as transgender since being jailed in 2013 - admitting she struggled with her gender identity since she was a teenager and was already taking hormones.
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The 30-year-old has now spoken of her plans to become the first UK prisoner to undergo the £20,000 life-changing surgery while behind bars, prompting fury from her victim's family.
Plans to let her have the op were shelved three years ago due to safety concerns for other gender surgery patients.
Speaking to the Daily Record from behind bars, she said she knew there would be little public sympathy for her cause given her criminal history.
"It won't be straightforward and I know a lot of people will say I don't deserve it, but nothing is more important to me than becoming fully the person I should have been," Green said.
"I want to feel comfortable in the shower rather than feeling repulsed. Having male genitalia feels wrong." Green is currently serving her sentence on a women's unit at HMP Edinburgh and is to request the NHS surgery 10 years into the sentence.
The prisoner met a surgeon in March 2020 as the Scottish Prison Service agreed to allow her bid for surgery at a clinic in Brighton, although the process stalled when the surgeon expressed doubt over security because of the nature of her crime.
Concerns were also raised about protecting other patients' privacy amidst the almost certain levels of publicity the surgery would generate.
When the country went into lockdown later that month, the plans were put on hold indefinitely. With at least eight years still to serve, Green claims she will need the surgery while still inside.
"It's a major operation," she said. "It takes you a long time to be prepared for it and long time to recover. I'll have a better chance of making a good recovery if I have it in my 30s rather than my 40s. I'd be able to come out of prison with my past completely behind me, which gives the best chance of succeeding outside."
Mr Shankland's family meanwhile are furious the plans have even been entertained, with sister Pauline Bell saying Green should not be eligible as "it's not life-saving treatment".
"She should not be getting the operation on the NHS," Ms Bell said back in 2018. "It's not lifesaving treatment. She took -somebody's life away and destroyed a family.
Mr Shankland was invited to the flat at Glenrothes in March 2013 where he was tied up with torn strips of bedding, suffocated and beaten with a rolling pin.
Killers Green, Kevin McDonagh and Dean Smith then sold Mr Shankland's phone and used the cash to buy ham sandwiches.
Judge John Morris jailed all three to life with a minimum of 18 years, telling the defendants: "It beggars belief you could act towards another human in this way."
Green has since claimed she's "no longer a danger", attributing her heinous crime to internalised anger over her gender dysphoria at the time.
Green said: "I was certain when I was 15 that I should have been a woman, so to get to the point where I had a rough date in my head and was meeting the surgeon only to have my hopes dashed was devastating.
The convicted killer however praised the Scottish Prison Service for its support, adding that most of the staff treated her with respect.
"I realise it's not just as simple as me wanting the operation and everyone having to help make it happen and I understand the security concerns because I was convicted of an awful crime, but that's past and I'm no danger to anyone."
Asked why she had taken part in such a callous crime, she said: "It was inexcusable - all I can say is I had a really awful childhood and was totally messed up.
"I was carrying a lot of anger inside me even before I realised I should have been a woman and that made me more angry.
"I wondered if I'd have been a different person if I'd been a woman. I'm not going to make excuses because there are none.
"I regret what I did and I'm sorry for it every day of my life.
"Even five minutes before it started if someone had asked me if I was capable of murder, I'd have said no way.
"I know what I did. But I can't change it and I can't bring him back.
"But I can't help anyone by sitting quietly, doing my time and not trying to complete my transition, so this is the best road for me."
Dr Kate Coleman, of the Keep Prisons Single Sex campaign group, said Green's interment in the female wing would "place the safety of women at the centre of their revised policy when the policy is finally released".
A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: "We do not comment on individuals."
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