A woman has been put on probation for three years after she admitted being sexually intimate with two teenage girls after telling them she was male.

Lord Bannatyne said Christine Wilson's case was "clearly exceptional" as he sentenced her at the High Court in Edinburgh today.

Wilson, 26, from Aberdeen, previously pleaded guilty to two charges of obtaining sexual intimacy by fraud.

During a two-month period in 2008, Wilson told a teenage girl that she was a 17-year-old boy called Chris.

She also told a second teenage girl she was male on various occasions between March and August 2010.

The court heard that Wilson has a recognised disorder known as gender identity disorder.

Lord Bannatyne said: "These are very unusual offences. The case is clearly an exceptional one."

Commenting on Wilson's disorder, he said: "I accept that this leads you to genuinely feel you are male rather than female. This significantly lowers your culpability."

Lord Bannatyne said that while the offences are serious, "having had regard to all the circumstances I believe they can be dealt with by an non-custodial sentence".

He acknowledged that the offences did not involve any threat of violence or actual violence.

Neither was it a situation where Wilson dressed as a boy in order to obtain sexual intimacy.

Rather, she always dressed as a boy, Lord Bannatyne said.

Wilson was sentenced to a three-year probation disorder with an additional 240 hours' community service.

Commenting on the sentence, the Scottish Transgender Alliance (STA), which is part of the Equality Network, said prosecution for gender fraud threatened trans people's right to privacy and "seriously undermined trans people's trust in the Scottish criminal justice system".

Nathan Gale, an STA development worker, said: "We understand that some people may be distressed when they become aware of the trans status of a partner or former partner.

"But just in the same way that people aren't obliged to share other personal information with potential partners, for example that they are married or have criminal convictions, trans people shouldn't be forced to share private information about their gender history under fear of prosecution."

The Equality Network wrote to the Lord Advocate in March stating concerns about the charge brought against Wilson and requesting a meeting to discuss how the Crown Office can address the trans community's concerns.

After Wilson's sentencing, Mr Gale said: "I sincerely hope that Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service will understand the seriousness of trans people's fears and respond to our call to take urgent steps to address them."