Sex-change woman claims hate campaigners almost killed her

Transsexual born in Elgin says nails were placed in her car tyres

By Jamie Buchan

Published:

A transsexual who started a new life in a north-east village claims hate campaigners almost killed her.

Beverly Paul, who was born a man, said she suffers name-calling and verbal abuse whenever she steps outside of her home at New Deer, in the heart of rural Buchan.

A dead rat has even been left on her doorstep.

And the 48-year-old said she was nearly killed after vandals targeted her car, hammering four nails into a back wheel.

She lost control on a country route near her home and careered off the road.

“If there had been another car on the other side of the road, I would have been a goner,” she said.

Miss Paul moved to the village six years ago when she was still a man.

The former car mechanic had been diagnosed as a transsexual 17 years ago and, just before Christmas 2003, decided to change her name and arrange for a gender reassignment operation, or sex change.

Miss Paul, who was born in Elgin as Paul Biffin, said her new life had given her more confidence and freedom.

But she has had to contend with stares and abuse from passers-by.

“It’s just what you might expect,” she said. “If I walk down the road people will shout stuff at me.

“I get primary school kids calling me names, which is a bit sad because it’s obviously something the parents have told them to do.

“And I had a lot of bother with older kids, who kept knocking on my door and running off. One time, they put a dead rat on my door.

“It wasn't nice, but I just thought it was kids being kids.

“To be honest, it all calmed down and I didn't have any trouble for a long time. The police had been good at speaking to the teenagers and they more or less left me alone after that.

“But one day I was driving through to Maud when I skidded and drove right across the road. I couldn’t control it, and it went on to the grass.”

Miss Paul took her Toyota Avensis to a garage in Peterhead.

“I noticed one of the back tyres was soft,” she said.

“I thought that was strange because it was only three weeks old.

“But the man at the garage had a look and told me he would have to report it to the police because it was criminal damage.

“He showed me four nails that had been stuck into the tyre. There’s no way that I could have picked them up by accident.”

Grampian Police are investigating the vandalism to Miss Paul’s car and have asked anyone with information to contact them.