Robbery spree to pay for sex swap

Watson was caught on camera at the Hanover International Hotel

A man who admitted carrying out more than 70 burglaries to pay for hormone treatment to help him become a woman has been jailed for four years.

Clive Watson, 37, of Aston, Birmingham, was traced after a policeman clung to his car as he fled a hotel in Daventry.

A judge at Nottingham Crown Court rejected claims that Watson had resorted to "desperate measures" to pay for the £400-a-time drugs.

Watson admitted six burglaries, 71 raids on hotels and driving offences.

It is no excuse to commit offences of dishonesty because you needed the money to change your sex Recorder Sam Minds

The hotel burglaries were committed across the West Midlands, the West Mercia police area and in Warwickshire.

Jason Aris, defending, told the court that the reasons for his client's offending were unusual.

He said: "It is not that he is confused about his sexual orientation towards men or women.

"He feels that he is in the wrong body. He feels he should have been born a woman.

Dragged by car

"Mr Watson is the first to admit that his actions have been reprehensible.

"He has encountered such a wall of oppression and hostility towards him he has had to resort to what can only be described as desperate measures."

Watson was spotted on CCTV cameras at the Hanover International Hotel in Daventry on 13 January, where he kicked in the doors to five rooms and stole cash, credit cards and other valuables.

Pc Pat Murray, of Northamptonshire Police, was called to the hotel in Sedgemoor Way and saw Watson in a red Peugeot 205 with the stolen property on the back seat of the car.

As Watson drove off, Pc Murray, 40, grabbed hold of the car door but was dragged for 75ft (22.86m) and suffered cuts and bruises.

'Desperate circumstances'

On Friday, Recorder Sam Minds jailed Watson for a total of four years and four months.

Imposing a three-year sentence for the burglaries, he said: "It has been put to me that I should take into account that you steal in order to pay for the drugs to start the process of changing your sex and you had to steal because you were in desperate circumstances.

"I totally reject that. It is no excuse to commit offences of dishonesty because you needed the money to change your sex."

Jailing him for a further 16 months, to run consecutively, for the dangerous driving, Recorder Minds added: "Those 75ft must have felt like forever for the officer whilst he was trapped, his arm inside the car.

"Anything could have happened to that poor policeman - he could have had part of his own anatomy changed."

Watson, who had previous convictions for theft, dishonesty and driving offences, was arrested less than two weeks later in Birmingham.