A JUDGE apologised to a transgender woman who stole a heart surgeon’s wallet after she was referred to as a man during her sentencing.

Allahra Aziz, who stole the wallet from a private area of the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, appeared at Oxford Crown Court via videolink from prison on Thursday after admitting charges of burglary and fraud.

When the sentencing began, the 37-year-old, who was born male but identifies as female, was being referred to as ‘he’ and ‘sir’ – which prompted a dressing down of the courtroom.

From the screen, Ms Aziz abruptly interrupted proceedings and exclaimed: “I’m transgender and I find it very disrespectful that you would refer to me as ‘sir’.

During the outburst, she also claimed she had given birth to a son and that she had been the victim of rape during her stay at HMP Wormwood Scrubs in London.

When she finished, Judge Ian Pringle QC addressed Ms Aziz following his error and said: "Please accept my apologies."

The charges related to an incident on October 21 in which Ms Aziz went into a private room in the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, and stole a wallet belonging to a surgeon.

She then made small payments using a card from the wallet before returning to the hospital and giving it back.

After hearing of the difficult time faced by transgender women in men’s prisons, Judge Pringle sentenced Ms Aziz to four months for burglary and one month for fraud to run concurrently.