Isla Bryson was a shaven-headed Adam Graham with a Mike Tyson-style face tattoo when carrying out the violent sex attacks in 2016 and 2019 after meeting the victims 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 rapist has been taking hormones but has not had any surgery.The attacker denied the accusations, telling jurors any sex was consensual - although Bryson insisted to having no joy in sleeping with women and told the court 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.
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. 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.It is understood the defendant is being held in a segregation unit at Cornton Vale women's prison, where the attacker will be risk assessed ahead of sentencing on February 28.
Officials will decide whether the sex attacker will serve the final jail term in a women’s or men’s prison. 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. 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.’
