Transsexual appeals brothel conviction

A Venezuelan transsexual who was convicted as a man on a charge of helping to run a brothel arrived in the appeal court yesterday as a woman, hoping to have the case dismissed.

When 40-year-old Raul Alvarado was called to the witness box at Cork Circuit Appeals Court, barrister Brian Leahy said: “Mr Alvarado is now Ms Alvarado.”

When the case was before Cork District Court one year ago it emerged that Alvarado was saving for a sex-change operation.