The first person in Britain to be charged with a transgender hate crime has warned that the police and courts are being used to stifle legitimate debate on the controversial topic.

Miranda Yardley, who was born a man but underwent gender realignment to become a woman, went on trial earlier this month after being accused of harassment by a transgender activist.

The 51-year-old accountant, who still identifies as male, was prosecuted after Helen Islan, the mother of a transgender child, accused him of "outing" her son by posting a picture of him on Twitter.

Mr Yardley was interviewed at length by Essex Police in April 2018, before a file on the case was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

Prosecutors concluded that the offending tweet constituted a transgender hate crime, and he was summonsed to appear before Basildon Magistrates' Court, charged with harassment under section 2 of the Prosecution from Harassment Act 1997.

But the case was thrown out by a District Judge, who declared that the prosecution had failed to provide any evidence that the tweet constituted harassment.

It was later established that the picture Mr Yardley had Tweeted had previously been published online by the complainant herself.