A Canadian mixed martial arts fighter convicted of multiple sexual assaults has begun identifying as a woman and is now blaming his sexist past on “gender dysphoria.” Jody Matthew Burke, 46, who has been classified as a “dangerous offender,” has now adopted the name Amber and has asked to be referred to by female pronouns in court, something the Crown and Defense have respected since last Wednesday. He is also requesting an alteration to his sex offender status which would grant him a more lenient sentence for his most recent conviction.
Burke was convicted of sexual assault on three separate occasions and was placed on Canada’s federal sex offender registry for violent sex crimes committed in 2005 and 2014 in Ontario and British Columbia, respectively.
He met his most recent victim in a halfway house in Montreal, Quebec, while serving a three-year sentence he was handed in 2014 for the sexual assault of a woman in British Columbia.