Vernon Mussington, 52, (pictured) was charged with harassing Joanne Gullon

An entrepreneur was hauled before a court accused of a hate crime – for saying 'all right geezer' to a transgender Afghanistan veteran.

Vernon Mussington, 52, was charged with harassing Joanne Gullon, who served with the RAF Reserve as a man but now says she 'identifies as a woman'.

She claimed he had 'deliberately misgendered' her on three occasions by saying 'all right geezer' to her when they passed in the street.

Mr Mussington appealed after being found guilty by magistrates last year and his conviction has now been quashed.

The case follows a judge's criticism of prosecutors after a woman ended up before him for calling a man a 'pussy'.

Mr Mussington, a committed Christian, accepts he said 'all right geezer' on the third occasion – but insists he had never met Miss Gullon before then and did not know he was talking to a transgender woman as she was wearing jeans and a jacket.

At the appeal hearing on Thursday, Miss Gullon, 47, gave evidence from behind a screen. She said she began changing gender in 2014 and was having an operation in two weeks' time.

She sobbed as she told the court being addressed with 'all right geezer' was 'very upsetting' as it 'denies your humanity' and showed the speaker refused to accept who she was.

She claimed Mr Mussington first used the phrase to her in October or November 2015 in Bedford, where they both live.

She said he also stared in between her legs and laughed, prompting her to alert PC Abi Chapman. But PC Chapman told the appeal at Luton Crown Court that she did not recall Mr Mussington being there.

At an appeal hearing on Thursday, Joanne Gullon (pictured) gave evidence from behind a screen and said she began changing gender in 2014

A fortnight later, Miss Gullon claimed Mr Mussington said 'all right geezer' to her again when he walked past her. But she said the offender was aged 35 to 40 with short hair and a mark on his cheek, but he is older, bald and has no such mark.

The third alleged incident was on January 12 last year at around 5pm when it was dark.

Miss Gullon filmed Mr Mussington on her mobile phone after he had said 'all right geezer'. She claimed he said 'I don't talk to f*****s' and 'go away gay boy' when she challenged him – both of which he denied.

The court heard that, in the footage, Mr Mussington walks away and is not heard to say anything while Miss Gullon asks: 'Call me a gay boy? For a start I'm not a f****** boy, you idiot. I have breasts. So how many more times do you want to call me geezer and gay boy?'

GENDER ROWS: THE GROWING TREND - It emerged this week that a transgender teenager is suing £13,000-a-year Hereford Cathedral School for discrimination, claiming he was 'treated like a freak' for wanting to dress as a boy. The 16-year-old, who was born female, claims he was effectively excluded from the school because staff refused to let him wear a boy's uniform. The teenager is suing his former school under the 2010 Equality Act. The school said it would defend its actions at any hearing and always put pupil wellbeing first. - Doctors have been told they should no longer refer to pregnant women as 'expectant mothers' in order to bring 'inclusive language' to GP surgeries and hospitals. They have been advised to speak of 'pregnant people' to avoid offending patients in the process of changing gender. Details of the British Medical Association's advice came in the wake of the case of Hayden Cross, 20, who is five months pregnant. Mr Cross, who was born a girl but is in the process of changing gender, has had hormone therapy and is legally male, but has not had sex-change surgery. - Last year a ferry company was forced to change its toilet door signs after staff told a transgender taxi driver to use the disabled loo. Erin Bisson, 40, from Jersey, launched a discrimination case after she was left 'humiliated' by Condor Ferries. - In 2013 PC Emma Chapman sued her force for allegedly making her 'out' herself to hundreds of officers. PC Chapman, who was born male and went through gender reassignment, claimed Essex Police control room staff had challenged her identity when she called in on the radio. A tribunal said PC Chapman was 'unreasonably prone to offence'. Advertisement

Another man can be heard to shout the homophobic phrase 'batty boy' before Miss Gullon continues: 'See, I'm really enjoying this as I'm going to go down the police now and I'm going to get you arrested.

'Come on, tell me what you called me, big boy. You're not such a big man now are you? Are you scared of a tranny?'

Miss Gullon told police: 'As a trans person, transition is so hard anyway and at the end of the day all I want to be is accepted for who I am. I served my country in Afghanistan and I can't even walk down my own street without being afraid. I have been threatened and called a freak by complete strangers.'

Mr Mussington denied a charge of harassment by making derogatory comments in relation to her gender at Luton Magistrates' Court last September. But magistrates found him guilty and he was sentenced to 150 hours' community service, and fined £360.

At the appeal, when Natasha Lloyd-Owen, defending Mr Mussington, asked Miss Gullon if 'all right geezer' was a common greeting to men, she replied: 'Maybe in your life, not in mine', adding that she 'wholeheartedly felt it was abuse'.

Recorder Stephen Lennard ruled in favour of Mr Mussington because the prosecution had relied on a 'course of conduct' involving three incidents, but failed to provide sufficient evidence of identification of Mr Mussington for the first two.

But he said he had no doubt Mr Mussington was present on the third occasion and the exchange was offensive and abusive to Miss Gullon. After his acquittal, Mr Mussington, the inventor of a patented juggling sticks game, said: 'I can't believe anyone could end up in court for saying 'all right geezer'. It's absurd.

'Everyone has the right to greet people. I didn't expect my life to be sabotaged because of it. I didn't know the person was transgender. I'd never met her before what she claimed was the third incident.

'I was just saying hello. I try to get on with everyone and say hello, whoever they are. I've been under constant stress for nearly a year because of this.'

Lenny Palmer, 53, of Elstow, Bedfordshire, was convicted last year for shouting 'batty boy'. In the case of a woman who called a man 'pussy', Judge Daniel Pearce-Higgins said in a sentencing hearing at Worcester Crown Court: 'That's an offence, is it? Good heavens. It's fairly standard behaviour in life.'