A gay clergyman and pillar of the community said transsexual people were vermin, a tribunal heard.

The Reverend David Miller, 66, retired last year after 18 years of service to the gay community.

But he was a bigot who evicted a tenant when he discovered he was a transsexual, it was alleged.

The claims were made by another transsexual, Andy Baldwin, who is suing Brighton and Hove City Council for sex discrimination.

Mr Baldwin, 34, alleged he was bullied by council bosses and hounded out of his £26,500-a-year job as the voice of the city's gay community when he came out as a transsexual.

Mr Baldwin was known as Andrea when he took the job as coordinator of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) safety forum in 2000.

He told an employment tribunal yesterday he was bullied and victimised by line manager Linda Beanlands and safety forum chairwoman Anthea Ballam after he changed his name to Andy in April 2002.

Mr Miller allegedly made the "vermin" comment in a telephone conversation with the evicted tenant which Mr Baldwin recorded, the tribunal heard.

He is also alleged to have said: "I do not think by anyone's reckoning that being transsexual can be regarded as normal."

Mr Miller, who had succeeded Ms Ballam as chair of the LGBT safety forum, would not accept the man was now a woman, the tribunal heard.

Another of Mr Miller's tenants bombarded the transsexual with text messages containing death threats, said Mr Baldwin.

The controversy surrounding the allegations led to Mr Miller's retirement and contributed to the collapse of the safety forum in 2003.

It had been set up in 1998 as a multi-agency response to the under-reporting of hate crime. After retiring, Mr Miller sold his house in Hollingdean, Brighton, and moved to East Anglia.

At the time, he denied allegations of prejudice against transsexuals and said he was the victim of a conspiracy.

He set up the Whosoever Metropolitan Church in Bernard Road, Brighton, in 1986.

Mr Baldwin alleged Ms Beanlands and Ms Ballam took a dislike to him and started a whispering campaign to oust him from his post when they heard about his "gender reassignment."

He said the council refused to pay him or allow him time off in lieu of 190 hours overtime he worked and failed to honour a pay rise he was due.

Mr Baldwin told the tribunal: "I concluded I would never be able to work safely as a transsexual man in the employment of the council."

The council claims Ms Beanlands did not know Mr Baldwin had changed his gender and denies discrimination. Under cross-examination from the council's representative Ian Young, Mr Baldwin admitted he never told either woman he was now living as a man.

He started receiving hormone treatment and officially changed his name to Andy after being medically diagnosed as a transsexual in late 2002.

But in his resignation letter in January 2003 and other correspondence with the council he signed off as Andrea.

The hearing is scheduled to last into next week.