By Elizabeth Aubrey – NME News
JK Rowling has criticised Sky News for referring to a convicted murderer as a woman in its reporting of the case.
Scarlet Blake, 26, was jailed for life after being convicted for the murder of Jorge Martin Carreno. Four months prior to this, Blake live-streamed a video in which she killed a cat, something the judge in the case said was partly inspired by Netflix documentary, Don’t F*** With Cats.
The court heard Blake had watched the Netflix documentary in which a man kills kittens before filming the murder of a human.
After it was reported that the killer had transitioned to female, Rowling criticised Sky News for referring to her as a woman. Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Rowling said: “I’m so sick of this shit. This is not a woman. These are #NotOurCrimes.”
Tickle argued that referring to Blake as a woman was a “failure of transparency” and “failures of editorial judgement and process”.
A user on social media who criticised Rowling’s response to Sky News said: “What does it matter how this person identifies?”
Rowling replied, writing: “1. Crime statistics are rendered useless if violent and sexual attacks committed by men are recorded as female crimes. 2. Activists are already clamouring for this sadistic killer to be incarcerated in a women’s prison. 3. Ideologically-driven misinformation is not journalism”.
The author has faced a backlash for a number of remarks which have been perceived as transphobic, stemming back to 2020. Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have all spoken out against her views and defended transgender women and men.
Last year, Rowling said she would “happily” go to prison rather than refer to transgender women as “women”. On October 17 2023, the Harry Potter author posted an image on X/Twitter which showed the slogan, “Repeat after us: trans women are women,” with the caption: “No.”
Earlier this year, HBO announced a TV adaptation of Harry Potter is in development, with Rowling on board as an executive producer.