Sheffield man set trans woman’s house on fire after saying ‘trannies offend me’

A Sheffield man has been jailed after an arson attack on a transgender woman's home.

Lee Harrison, 43, set the front door of the flat alight after attempting to pour petrol through the woman’s letterbox on August 15 last year.

Harrison, of Hallowmoor Road, had previously told the victim that "anyone who is a tranny offends me; it’s a lifestyle choice” and had threatened her just days before stating that he was “going to burn you out.”

The victim who was in the process of transitioning from male to female was not in whilst the attacks was happening however, her flatmate was as the BBC reports.

Thankfully, the fire didn’t spread beyond the front as a neighbour was able to extinguish it quickly.

In a statement she described how she couldn’t escape from the flat and “truly believed (she) was about to die.”

Prosecutor Robert Sandford stated that the attack was stimulated by the fact that the victim “was in the process of transitioning from the male to female gender.”

Judge Graham Reeds QC stated that the attack was “aggravated by hostility towards the victim’s transgender identity, which is a very significant feature.”

Harrison pleaded guilty and was subsequently jailed for 5 years and 10 months.

This comes following a spike in hate crimes towards transgender people in recent years. Between 2011/12 and 2018/19, there has been a 261% increase in the number of sexual orientation and transgender hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales.

The charity Stonewall estimated that 2 in every 5 Trans people had experienced a hate crime or incident within the past year in a study conducted last year.