A MAN stabbed a transsexual with shards from a broken vase after discovering her true gender during an intimate encounter, a Melbourne court heard today.

Clinton Dwayne McRae, 28, of Pakenham, today pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court to intentionally seriously injuring the woman after going to bed with her last January.

McRae met a person he believed to be a woman at a Southbank club. They returned to the 41-year-old woman's city apartment where she stripped to her underwear and they got into bed together, the court heard.

As they started to become intimate she jumped out of the bed and told him she was transsexual, she told the court.

McRae then punched her several times, grabbed her hair and yelled: “You're a f---ing freak ... I'm going to kill you,” she told the court.

“I begged for my life. I got down on my knees and asked for forgiveness,” she said.

She said she grabbed a ceramic vase which McRae took from her. He hit her on the head with it and stabbed her with a broken portion of the vase.

She said she escaped and hid outside her apartment and McRae then left.

McRae's lawyer, John Dickinson, told the court his client contended that the woman started the fight by punching and kicking him after he made a comment when he discovered her true sexuality.

“What he is saying is self-defence was raised initially but there is a contention made by him to police that in defending himself he went too far,” Mr Dickinson said.

In an interview with police, McRae said any “red-blooded male” would have been angry if faced with his situation.

“You read about this ... hear about this, you don't ever think it's going to happen to you,” he said to police after the incident.

“I am going to need mental counselling after what's happened.”

The woman spent four days in hospital and suffered lacerations to the chest, shoulder and torso, Crown prosecutor Gabriele Cannon told the court.

The pre-sentence hearing before Judge Millane continues on Monday.

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