Double rapist Isla Bryson jailed for eight years

Isla Bryson was convicted last month of raping one woman in Clydebank in 2016 and another in Drumchapel in 2019.

The 31-year-old committed the offences while known as Adam Graham.

Bryson only began identifying as a woman after being charged and has not legally changed gender, although they are taking hormones and requesting surgery.

Following the conviction, one victim said she was sure the accused was "faking it" and had chosen to change gender as "an easy way out."

Bryson's estranged wife also reportedly stated it was a "sham for attention".

READ MORE: Isla Bryson: 'Transgender rapist should not have been in womens jail'

During the trial, the High Court in Glasgow heard Bryson was going through the breakdown of a brief, unhappy marriage and went to stay with the first victim at her mother’s house in Clydebank in 2016.

Giving evidence on pre-recorded video, the victim, 30, said she was raped for half an hour.

“All I said was ‘no’ over and over and over again,” she said.

“At the time I was so scared. Sick to the stomach. I just didn’t know what was going on.”

The second victim, who gave evidence via live video-link, told the court Bryson continued to have sex with her after she said stop.

The court heard Bryson entered the victim with “her penis”, and was told to stop because they were “crushing” the victim.

The victim’s police statement said Bryson instead told her to “stay there” because “he wasn’t finished”.

The victim told the court: “I said to stop but he just kept on going, and that’s when I just closed my eyes and I am doing what he wanted to do.”

Giving evidence during the trial, Bryson claimed both women consented to having sex.

READ MORE: Isla Bryson: Nicola Sturgeon under pressure over trans prisoner report

Defence advocate Edward Targowski KC told the court Bryson’s move to transition following both rapes was not “an afterthought cynically designed to reduce the punishment”, contrary to what he described as “ill-informed and ill-judged comments” made outside of the court.

He said the rapist, who appeared in court wearing a blond wig and dressed in black leggings and a fluorescent pink jacket, was currently on “the maximum recommended doses of hormone prescription” from the Sandyford clinic.

He also said this coupled with “troubled early years”, made his client vulnerable.

Sentencing Bryson, Lord Scott told the rapist: “You see yourself as the victim in this situation. You are not.

“Your vulnerability is no excuse at all for what you did to these two women.

“You raped two women who can both be regarded as vulnerable.”

He added: “You are not at the stage of accepting what you did or acknowledging the serious harm you inflicted on two women.”

He said the rapist was “a high risk of reoffending”, adding: “There will need to be a high level of supervision.”

As well as the sentence, which was backdated to January 24, and extended supervision, Bryson has also been placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely.

The case sparked outrage after Bryson was initially housed in Cornton Vale, Scotland’s only female prison.

A backlash led to them being moved to Barlinnie, and forced a change in policy with all newly convicted or remanded transgender prisoners now being initially kept in an "establishment commensurate with their birth gender" regardless of their crime or their legal gender.

Bryson's conviction, coming just weeks after MSPs passed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, sparked a huge political row, with SNP politicians split on whether to refer to Bryson as a man or a woman. 

Nicola Sturgeon initially refused to say, but then at a press conference referred to them by a series of female pronouns.

Pressed on the issue, Ms Sturgeon said: “She regards herself as a woman.  I regard the individual as a rapist."

The question has also been asked of the three candidates vying to replace the SNP leader. 

On Sunday, Humza Yousaf said: "Isla Bryson is at it if I'm honest. I think they are a dangerous individual, a deceptive individual. I don't think they're a true trans woman. I think they're trying to play the system for personal advantage."

Kate Forbes - who has previously said she did not support self-identification for trans people - agreed. "A rapist cannot be a woman and therefore my straight answer would be that Isla Bryson is a man," she told Sky News. 

It is a view also held by Ash Regan, who resigned from the Scottish Government last year in protest against the GRR bill.

Scottish Conservative shadow community safety minister Russell Findlay MSP said the eight year sentence meant the rapist "could be back on the streets in as little as four years, which will likely be of little comfort to victims."

He added: “They’ve already suffered from the perverse decision to address this rapist as ‘she’ and by Nicola Sturgeon and her justice secretary refusing to say what everyone in Scotland can see with their own eyes — that Bryson is a man.

“Even following Nicola Sturgeon’s sudden resignation, the SNP government continues to attempt to dupe the public by saying this case has nothing to do with its gender self-ID bill.

“But if this SNP law is enacted, it will be wide open to exploitation by giving the legal right to sex offenders to declare they are female, no matter the risks to women and girls.

“Going forward, the prison service must publish its delayed new policy on transgender prisoners, allowing for full scrutiny, feedback and, if necessary, amendment.”