Vancouver, Aug 15 (IANS) A Canadian jailed in a men's prison here - despite claiming to have always identified as a female - has sought removal of her penis and transfer to a women's prison.

Katherine Anne Johnson, 61, says she has been raped, assaulted, punched and called names by fellow male prisoners. 

Johnson, who is serving life term for beating her roommate to death, says she was born with a female mind but the body of a male and has always identified as a female, according to Canwest news agency.

According to the report, she had her testicles removed in 1979 and has tried to remove her penis six times. In 1983, she cut it with a razor blade, but it was reattached while she was unconscious from blood loss.

She says she suffered nerve damage from the incident and cannot achieve an erection-and said it has been 'my lifelong wish' to have gender-reassignment surgery. 

In her affidavit filed with the federal appeal court of Canada, Johnson says, "My only hope is that I will be given a penectomy and will be transferred to the women's prison....I did not want to live the last years of my life in a male prison." 

Speaking of her life inside a men's jail, she says, "I have been forced to go along with having sex with men in prison for protection to avoid being killed or raped by other men. I am terrified of being around men." 

She says she has been called a "f-ing drag queen," assaulted and punched in the head by male prisoners. Once a male prisoner held a knife to her throat in a washroom, but she managed to escape, she says in her affidavit.

In a third incident, two inmates came into her cell, threw her to the ground and demanded oral sex.

In a fourth incident, a prisoner sliced her chest with the edge of an opened can of salmon, she says. 

Jail authorities have defended their decision to keep her in a men's jail but refer to her as "Ms Johnson" in their manual. 

Officials said they are investigating her allegations.