A transgender arsonist who torched two cars in revenge against village gossips has been sent to a male prison.
Davina Moore said she believed her sister Sarah Smith and her husband Gary were spreading rumours that she was a paedophile and responded with a five-month campaign of harassment.
Moore hurled a brick through the window of one of their cars and thrown lit firelighters into their garden as well as pestered them at their home in the South Devon village of Chudleigh Knighton.
But her vendetta reached a peak on April 18 when Moore poured petrol onto her sister and brother-in-law’s Mazda and Hyundai cars before setting them alight.
The couple went out to try to douse the flames with a hosepipe but the fire brigade had to be called to finish the job and both cars were write-offs.
Plant operator Moore, aged 54, of Teign View, Chudleigh Knighton, admitted two arsons, criminal damage and harassment and was jailed for a year and eight months by Judge Stephen Climie at Exeter Crown Court.
The sentence will mean that Moore will not receive gender reassignment surgery which had been scheduled for this autumn. She is currently serving her sentence at HMP Exeter, which is a male prison.
The judge told her: ‘These arson charges are extraordinarily serious because they were perceived as revenge attacks for matters which your sister and her partner had denied, although I accept you do not perceive that necessarily.
‘This is the problem when people gossip and chatter inappropriately and word gets back.’ The judge imposed a restraining order which bans any further contact with the victims.
Mr Lewis Aldous, prosecuting, said the source of the dispute was Moore’s mistaken belief that Mr and Mrs Smith had spread rumours that she was a paedophile. It led to a her harassing her sister and brother-in-law over about five months.
It started with unwanted visits to their home in River Valley Road, Chudleigh Knighton in December 2023 and continued with Moore trying to get her sister fired from her job at Trago Mills.
Moore left a petrol can next to the couple’s cars on January 20 and used a brick to smash the window of one nine of them nine days later. She threw a lit firelighter over their garden wall on February 2 but it went out because it was raining.
She admitted the arson and the harassment when interviewed by police and told them she was taking revenge for false rumours she believed the couple had been spreading.
Miss Zoe Kuyken, defending, said Moore has five adult children and caring responsibilities for his 82-year-old mother. He will lose his job as a heavy plant operator if he is given an immediate sentence.
She said Moore is not receiving the oestrogen treatment she needs for her reassignment treatment while in prison and her intention is to have an operation in the autumn if she is at liberty.
Miss Kuyken said Moore says the problems with her sister and brother-in-law are a chapter in her life which is now closed.