Lawyer: 'Shell game' over sex change

TORONTO, March 15 (UPI) -- A lawyer for a Canadian man acquitted by reason of insanity of rape and confined to a psychiatric institution says his client will be assessed for a sex change.

Michael Davies said various departments in the Ontario government are engaged in a "shell game" about paying for it, CanWest News Service reported. Davies represents Shauna Taylor, who legally changed his name from Vance Egglestone and has been dressing as a woman for several years.

Taylor, 53, was charged with a brutal sexual assault in 1976 and acquitted by reason of insanity. He was found to have committed another rape 10 years later while he was an outpatient.

The Ontario Review Board, which supervises the criminally insane, ordered an assessment in 2007 of whether a sex change operation is necessary for Taylor's psychological health. A judge ruled Friday that the Ministry of the Attorney General does not have to pay for it.

"The attorney general said the board should pay and the board said the attorney general should pay," Davies said.