Stuff.co.nz
A transsexual in the “final stages of her transformation” stole a dead baby’s identity so she could travel as a woman, a Christchurch District Court judge heard today.
Despite a lawyer’s plea to defer a jail sentence so Leilani Sialapae, 27, would not be incarcerated in a men’s prison, Judge Phillip Moran said he could not be persuaded that a prison sentence was inappropriate.
Sialapae pleaded guilty to 15 charges involving passport fraud, using forged documents and misleading social welfare officers to obtain benefits she was not entitled to, and one count of assault.
Sialapae, who appeared in court dressed as a woman with waist-length black hair partly bleached, admitted using the identity of a baby who died at the age of six months to apply for a passport so she could travel overseas as a woman.
The child’s name, which was suppressed, was taken from a headstone in a cemetery.
Lawyer Leuatea Iosefa referred to his client as a female throughout the sentencing and told Judge Moran Sialapae was a transsexual at the “pre-operative stage” but legally a male.