A mother-of-two has appeared in court accused of describing a transgender woman as a 'pig in a wig' alongside a number of offensive and upsetting tweets.

Kate Scottow, 39, was arrested by three police officers at her home in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, late last year as her then ten-year-old daughter and 20-month-old son looked on.

Her arrest followed complaints from transgender campaigner Stephanie Hayden who told St Albans Magistrates Court today that Scottow - who was subsequently charged - had in a number of tweets referred to her using 'he' or 'him' during a period of 'significant online abuse'.

Scottow now faces a two day trial on a charge alleging she persistently made use of a public communications network to cause annoyance, inconvenience and anxiety to Ms Hayden between September 2018 and May of 2019.

Kate Scottow, 39, (left) was arrested by three police officers at her home in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, late last year as her then ten-year-old daughter and 20-month-old son looked on. Her arrest followed complaints from transgender campaigner Stephanie Hayden (right)

It was also heard today that Scottow had allegedly continued to abuse Ms Hayden despite a 'compromise agreement' being reached in which is was decided Scottow would not refer to Ms Hayden on social media and not call her a racist.

In the witness box Ms Hayden told the court she discovered the defendant had in a number of tweets referred to her using 'he' or 'him'

Ms Hayden went on: 'This is the problem with these people. It's just done to annoy people like me.'

She went on: 'It's calculated to violate my dignity as a woman,' adding 'its just harassment.'

Ms Hayden was giving evidence at the start of the trial which is expected to last two days.

She told the court she had a 'gender recognition certificate' which for all purposes meant she was considered to be a female.

Ms Hayden then told the court how around September 2018 she was being subjected to 'significant online abuse' and harassment from internet trolls.

She said one stood out in particular using the twitter account name of 'Busted Wench' - which was eventually revealed to belong to Scottow.

Ms Hayden said: 'I had been subject to significant online abuse and harassment by internet trolls but a number of those trolls stood out for various reasons and I recall that there was one particular Twitter account which was, at the time, known as Busted Wench.

'Among all the things I had received at that time, I got a Tweet which basically described me as a racist. I was very offended.'

The court heard that the tweet read: 'Let's hope they take a serious stance on your racism.'

Ms Hayden told the judge: 'I had never heard about the account before. It seemed to me just random abuse and defamation for the sake of it.

'It was the weekend. I was receiving what is known as a Twitter pile-on. That is where you are getting notifications from many, many trolls.

'In the context of the pile-on I was receiving, I felt that that could be very inflammatory in generating more abuse. Describing me as a racist.'

Ms Hayden said she decided to research the Busted Wench account to see who was behind it and and eventually discovered Scottow was behind the tweet.

She said she looked at other tweets on the account and realised they not only targeted her, but other transgender people.

Ms Hayden said she started civil proceeding against the defendant but eventually a 'compromise agreement' was reached where Scottow would not refer to her on social media and not call her a racist.

'She signed the settlement agreement,' she told the court.

Scottow faces a two day trial on a charge alleging she persistently made use of a public communications network to cause annoyance, inconvenience and anxiety to Ms Hayden between September 2018 and May of 2019 (pictured, St Albans Magistrates Court)

However, she said in October of 2018 she became aware that a second twitter account had been created by the defendant and it became obvious to her the defendant wasn't going to take 'a blind but of notice' of the agreement she had signed up to.

She said the tweets began to escalate and again she was referred to as a racist.

Ms Hayden said that she then discovered the defendant had been 'misgendering' her in a number of tweets by referring to her a 'he' or 'him'

Crown prosecutor John Riley told the court that Scottow had then created two new Twitter accounts, @HampsonAlice and @BishBash, with which she continued to communicate with Ms Hayden.

'This sequence of events seems to have started off with the reference to racism at the beginning and then she reacted to that,' he said.

'There was, in the sequence, a county court matter where there was an agreement not to communicate or contact or make reference to this complainant.

'The Crown would say that there was a breach of that order.

'After that the Crown would say the @HampsonAlice account was created. The reason for that was because it was another method of being able to make reference to or contact Stephanie Hayden. Similarly, with regard to the @BishBash, that was just another way of contacting her.

'There was further civil action in relation to the High Court in which a number of detailed prohibitions were set out in order to prevent Mrs Scottow from continuing with her references to the complainant,' said the prosecutor.

Ms Hayden went on to tell the court she had been called a 'pig in a wig' in a tweet allegedly posted on an account controlled by Scottow in what she claimed was an attempt to degrade her dignity as a woman.

One of the Tweets, referring to Ms Hayden said: 'He is a very, very sick individual. I have evidence of that.'

The witness said: 'I looked at the Tweets on the account, there were a number of Tweets which were not only targeting me, they were targeting other people who were either transgender or who were perceived to be supportive of transgender people.

'When I observed the Tweets that the defendant was referring to me in, the defendant was referring to me with male pronouns, 'he/him'.

'This is the problem with these people, this is just done to annoy people like me. It is calculated to violate, in my case, my dignity as a woman. It is basically calculated to, excuse my language madam, piss us off. It is unnecessary and it is just harassment.'

Ms Hayden claimed she was the first person to have obtained a High Court injunction preventing mis-gendering and 'dead naming'.

She said she had been able to discover that the different anonymous Twitter accounts belonged to Scottow due to pictures of her dog, named Morrisey, which had been shared across the different accounts.

Defending Scottow, Diane Wilson described Ms Hayden as a 'fraudster and a serial litigant' who had two other court battles ongoing this week.

The judge was told that accuser Ms Hayden had a string of convictions dating back to 1996, for affray, breaches of community orders, making false representations with a view to gain and attempting to gain property by deception, for which she had received a sentence of imprisonment.

She had also been acquitted of beating someone with a golf club, the judge was told, which she had later made joking tweets about.

The judge decided the trial could safely proceed, despite Ms Wilson arguing it was an 'abuse of process', but allowed a bad character application which would allow the lawyers to quiz Ms Hayden about her previous convictions.

The trial continues.