Police forces across the UK show astounding rise in reporting of the crime

Transgender hate crime has risen by 81%, latest figures suggest.

Data from Scotland, England and Welsh police showed there were 1,944 crimes across 36 forces in the last financial year compared with 1,073 in 2016-17.

Police Scotland recorded 92 crimes in the year to March 2019, compared with 76 two years earlier.

Stonewall estimated that two in five trans people had experienced a hate crime or incident in the past year.

Laura Russell, from Stonewall, said: "These statistics are the real life consequences of a society where transphobia is everywhere - from the front pages of newspapers, to social media, and on our streets.

"We need people to realise how severe the situation is for trans people, and to be active in standing up as a visible ally to trans people, in whatever way they can."

Sue Pascoe was flagged as a vulnerable person by police for the amount of transgender hate abuse and threats she had received.

"It's a sad fact of life that this abuse is going to happen and I'll challenge it whenever it does," she said.

"The trend for the last five years is nothing but going up and those divisions are in our society generally. For me it's one of the scariest times I've lived through and I'm 59 now."