A Mormon who was denied a pre-sentence report after refusing to be interviewed by a transsexual probation officer has been freed, after his sentence was cut.
Nigel Coleman, 47, of Victoria Road, Swindon, was jailed for two months in September after admitting assault.
Magistrates did not allow Coleman to be seen by another probation officer.
They were told he had refused to "bare his soul" to an officer "who was having a trans-gender change," an appeal hearing at Swindon Crown Court heard.
'Emotional difficulties'
Recorder Mr Frank Abbott reduced the jail term by 16 days.
He said: "Had the report been available at the sentencing hearing, it may well have been that the appellant would have received a non-custodial sentence."
Coleman's barrister Mark Ashley, said: "He met this person who he considered to be a man dressed in drag."
This had offended Coleman, a member of the Church of the Latter-day Saints, the court was told.
He was described as a vulnerable person with "emotional difficulties" who had hit his victim after becoming over-involved in the film Lethal Weapon.