Furious campaigners slam 'disgusting' decision to send transgender rapist to ... trends now
Furious campaigners have slammed the 'disgusting' decision to send a transgender rapist who attacked two women while living as a man to an all-female prison.
Isla Bryson was a shaven-headed Adam Graham with a Mike Tyson-style face tattoo when they carried out the violent sex attacks in 2016 and 2019 after abusing the victims they originally met online.
Bryson, who claimed to have had gender issues since the age of four, began transitioning from a man to a woman in 2020 after being charged with the rapes. The attacker denied the accusations, telling jurors any sex was consensual - although Bryson insisted she did not like sleeping with women and they made the 'first move'.
There was no reference to the 31-year-old having a gender recognition certificate during the trial.
Bryson was found guilty of the two rapes yesterday. It is understood she is being held in a segregation unit at Cornton Vale women's prison, where the attacker will be risk assessed ahead of sentencing to see where she will serve her term.
Activists have slammed the move which follows controversy over Nicola Sturgeon's Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (GRR), which would allow anyone anyone over 16 to 'self-identify' as the opposite sex without needing medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
Isla Bryson, 31 was known as Adam Graham (pictured) and had a Mike Tyson-style face tattoo when they carried out the violent sex attacks in 2016 and 2019
Bryson pictured outside the High Court in Glasgow. She was convicted of two rapes today
Susan Smith, of campaign group For Women Scotland, said it was ‘disgusting’ that Bryson is being held at Cornton Vale.
She said: ‘The risk assessment should be perfectly clear.’
She insisted Bryson was a danger to women and ‘should be nowhere near the sort of vulnerable women who are in prison’.
Miss Smith added: ‘Some of our MSPs must have led incredibly sheltered lives if they think that predatory and abusive men would not try everything they could to further hurt victims and to seek easier access to potential future victims.’
The Scottish Government said: ‘Decisions taken by the Scottish Prison Service on the placement of transgender prisoners are based on protecting both the wellbeing and rights of the individual and those around them.’
Bryson was found guilty of the two rapes yesterday. The defendant denied the charges, saying in evidence she 'would never hurt another human being'.
Her defence KC Edward Targowski even told High Court in Glasgow: 'If you accept that evidence, that she is transitioning, that she is aiming to continue on that path to becoming female gender, that goes a long way to acquitting her of these charges'.
Bryson will be held in a segregation unit at the women’s prison for up to a month while risk assessments are carried out before she is sentenced.
Officials will decide whether she should serve her sentence in a women’s or men’s prison.
Isla Bryson, 31, from Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, arrives at the High Court in Glasgow yesterday. Following a six-day trial at the High Court a jury has found the transgender woman guilty of raping two women when she was a ma
Scottish Conservative shadow community safety minister Russell Findlay said yesterday: 'This rapist decided that he was no longer a man only after appearing in court on a rape charge.
'We now have the utterly perverse situation where a Scottish court refers to someone who says he identifies as female using "her penis" to rape two vulnerable women.
'We warned of the inevitability of this happening if the SNP's gender self-ID law passed, but for it to have become reality is deeply worrying and an affront to the victims.'
The first victim recalled repeatedly stating 'no' as her 'muscular' attacker raped her when the then-man got into bed beside her in 2016. The second woman was raped at a flat when they were planning to watch the film Mean Girls in 2019.
Bryson had first appeared in the dock in July 2019 as Adam Graham. By the start of her six-day trial the defendant was known as Isla Bryson. Bryson is currently taking hormones and seeking surgery to complete gender reassignment.
In December around 60 protesters gathered outside Cornton Vale when trans woman paedophile Katie Dolatowski was sent there. It came amid ongoing controversy over Nicola Sturgeon's Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (GRR), which would allow anyone anyone over 16 to 'self-identify' as the opposite sex without needing medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
