2:34pm Thursday 9th July 2009
A CONVICTED rapist serving a life sentence at a North-East prison won a bid today to be reclassified as a lower risk prisoner after being castrated during medical treatment for cancer.
TJ Hoen MacKenzie, 63, an inmate at Frankland Prison, Durham, had his request turned down twice by the Director of High Security Prisons, but the Court of Appeal quashed his decisions and asked him to reconsider.
Lady Justice Arden said the ruling did not necessarily mean that any new finding would go in MacKenzie's favour.
He was convicted in 1991 of raping a teenager and abduction of another with intent to rape. Both girls were under 16.
MacKenzie has spent 18 years in prison, 11 years past his minimum term.
He wanted to be reclassified from Category A to Category B on the grounds that he now presents a lower risk.
It would also help him to take courses which would allow an application for release.
The prisoner had failed at the High Court to overturn the decision but Lady Justice Arden said: "In my judgment, the challenge should have succeeded on the basis that the director had failed to take into account material evidence placed before him."
In 2005 he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and the following year his testicles were removed as part of the treatment.
Lady Justice Arden said: "An important part of Mr MacKenzie's case is that, as a result of this surgery, he has experienced a loss of libido and sexual functioning, and that his risk of re-offending has consequently reduced."
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