SEX change lawyer Susan Marshall is celebrating a legal victory after claiming she was the victim of sex discrimination.

Ms Marshall, home bursar at Exeter College, now plans to take the Director of Public Prosecutions to an industrial tribunal. She alleges that a job offer was withdrawn because she was about to change sex.

Ms Marshall has been told that the Employment Appeal Tribunal has found in her favour. This ruling effectively allows her to go ahead with her case. Ms Marshall, 51, said: "I am delighted with the judgement. But the appeal tribunal has only ruled that I should me granted permission to put my complaint before an industrial tribunal. The substantive issue has still to be heard."

Ms Marshall, who had ten years' experience as a naval barrister, was offered a job as a Crown prosecutor in March 1993, after attending the interview as Simon Stone.

But when she wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions, Dame Barbara Mills, explaining that she was undergoing a sex change, she claims the job offer was withdrawn.

Ms Marshall, who had her operation in 1994, is now waiting to discover whether the Director would be appealing. She said: "If the Director does appeal it would represent a disgraceful waste of taxpayers' money. The Director has already appealed against the original tribunal in January 1997."

Ms Marshall, who is divorced with two daughters, decided to go to a tribunal after the European Court of Justice ruled last year that equality at work also covered transsexuals. The employment appeal tribunal has still to release the reasons for its judgement. It granted the director leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal. A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said: "We wish to study this judgement carefully before commenting. We would repeat that the CPS is fully committed to a policy of equal opportunities and we will contest the industrial tribunal on its merits."

Ms Marshall's victory ironically comes as the Government produced its consultation document to reduce the risk of further legal problems involving transsexuals at work.

Ms Marshall said: "The Government introduced this to avoid further discrimination against transsexuals. But when you read it, it is as if it is trying to protect the community from transsexuals.

"It still leaves transsexuals with a limbo status. Transsexuals are still not able to marry, for instance. And there is still the risk that those who have not undergone surgery could find themselves in a men's prison if they committed a crime."

Press for Change, the UK's transsexual rights lobby, has been urging transsexual people to protest about the consultation document to Employment Minister Andrew Smith, MP for Oxford East .

PFC spokesman Christine Burns said: "Most countries have now acted to integrate transsexual people into their societies, but this document seems hell-bent on setting us apart."

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