Ex-paratrooper Captain Ian Hamilton will become Scotland’s first transsexual police officer training as a woman PC.

Strathclyde Police have said they will treat Mr Hamilton the same as all women trainees because he is legally recognised as a woman.

This means Mr Hamilton, now known as Jan, will only be able to search women and he will wear the uniform of a Strathclyde Police woman constable.

A source from the police force said Mr Hamilton “sailed through the selection process, as you would expect from someone with a military background”.

Mr Hamilton will begin his duties within weeks at Glasgow’s Maryhill police station – the home of Taggart, the fictional TV detective.

Assistant Chief Constable Hamish Cormack said: “The force actively encourages applications from all diverse communities.”

Mr Hamilton served in the army for 20 years, rising to the rank of captain in the elite Parachute Regiment.

He boasted long-term engagements in Kenya, Oman, Kuwait, Cyprus, Germany and Bosnia.

In 2007 Mr Hamilton accused the army of sex discrimination because they refused him permission to wear a woman’s uniform.

He took the case to an industrial tribunal and won an undisclosed payout.

In 2008, the 16 stone, 6ft tall, ex-paratrooper, who was previously married for ten years, underwent a 14 hour sex-change operation in Thailand.

Last year Mr Hamilton starred in a Channel Four documentary entitled Sex Change Soldier.