A COUPLE abused their transgender neighbour by calling her ‘a fairy’ and a ‘freak’ in a bitter tree-felling row, a court has heard.

Robert and Amanda Marshall are also said to have hurled tree branches and debris into neighbour Kate Vovro’s outdoor swimming pool during the spat.

The couple flew into a rage after discovering their neighbour, whose legal name is Paul Hockey, had trimmed eucalyptus trees that overhung her garden, the court heard.

The row broke out after Miss Vovro was alleged to have previously tried to poison the trees. In retaliation, a furious Mrs Marshall, 44, tossed the discarded branches over the fence and into Miss Vovro’s pool, magistrates heard.

Mr Marshall, 49, is also alleged to have repeatedly kicked a fence bordering the gardens of their £400,000 properties in Liederbach Drive, Verwood.

During the row, Miss Vovro, 51, retreated to an upstairs bedroom and filmed her neighbours from the window. In the footage shown to magistrates in Poole, the Marshalls can allegedly be heard calling her a ‘”gutless freak”.

Giving evidence, Miss Vovro, who runs a mobile sandblasting business, said: “Calling me a gutless freak makes me feel insulted.

“Why am I a freak? Because I dress as a woman? Lots of men would like to do what I do but they don’t have the guts so I fail to see how I can be called that. I felt scared and locked myself upstairs in my bedroom while filming them.

“They were shouting and hollering at me. To my mind calling me a fairy was transphobic.”

Magistrates heard the incident was witnessed by a couple who had been staying at Miss Vovro’s home. The complainant rents out her spare room on Airbnb. The guests left in the aftermath and were given a full refund by Miss Vovro, it was heard.

The Marshalls denied being transphobic and accused Miss Vovro of trying to ‘”set up” the incident in August 2018.

Jonathan Morrissey, defending, put it to her: “This entire case is nothing to do with you being dressed as a woman.

“This is about you exercising your rights and doing what you want, when you want and nobody is going to contradict you. I would put it to you that you knew exactly what you were doing because you set this whole thing up.”

Mrs Marshall denies a charge of causing her neighbour harassment, alarm or distress. Mr Marshall has pleaded not guilty to the same charge and one of causing criminal damage to a fence panel.

Their trial was adjourned and will resume on October 30.