When they demoted me because I became a woman I considered suicide

-- A transsexual business executive says she was driven to the brink of suicide after she was "demoted" at work after changing sex to become a woman.

Jessica Bussert, 41, said yesterday that she came close to jumping in front of a train after she found herself doing administrative tasks for colleagues.

The data analyst is now claiming damages of £500,000 from Hitachi Data Systems for discrimination in an employment tribunal that could prove a test case for transsexuals.

The executive, who, as Joshua, had been used to working on multi-million pound contracts with huge IT clients, including the US Department of Defense, claims that she was made to book hotel rooms and arrange meals after she returned from surgery as a woman.

"I jokingly said that when I had my breasts done the company must have assumed that they used my frontal lobe as a filler. I seriously thought of suicide. I considered filling the flat with carbon monoxide.

"I stood on the platform at Ealing Broadway watching the express trains go by. It was so much more than the career: it was people trying to devalue you as a human being. It's like acid poured into your soul," she said. --