A TRANSSEXUAL woman escaped being sent to jail because a judge deemed it would be too dangerous for her.

Hartford woman Jan Krause, who was born male, expected to go to prison when she arrived at Chester Magistrates’ Court laden with two rucksacks, a pillow and a bed roll.

The 46-year-old had been found guilty at a three-day trial of mounting a six-year harassment campaign against Carol Story and her family, who live across the road from Krause, in Walnut Lane.

District judge Nicholas Sanders told the court sentencing guidelines said Krause should be jailed for her behaviour unless there was a good reason not to.

“It is quite clear you are a vulnerable person in the prison environment and in your case a prison sentence would have a greater impact than it would on other people,” he said to Krause on Thursday.

“For that reason and that reason alone I propose a suspended sentence today.”

He gave Krause, who refuses to accept that she has done anything wrong, a 12-week sentence suspended for 18 months, told her to do 120 hours of community service and gave her an 18-week curfew from 6.30am to 10am, from 4.30pm to 7pm and from 8pm to midnight. She was also given a four-year restraining order with eight conditions.

Richard Thomas, defending Krause before Mr Sanders passed sentence, said: “If she were sent to prison, she would find herself in the most awkward and dangerous place anyone could find themself in.

“There is some doubt over whether she would go to a female or a male establishment.

“If she were to go to a male prison, who knows what would happen to her, it hardly takes any thinking about to see how much danger she would be in.

“She would have to serve her sentence entirely on her own in isolation – this would be a far more severe prison sentence that anyone else would have to go through.”