Students are demanding answers from college chiefs after they were asked to strip off for beauty classes in front of rapist Isla Bryson. Transgender Bryson was convicted on Wednesday of brutal attacks committed while living as a man.
Now former Ayrshire College students who trained to become beauticians alongside the 31-year-old have told how they got naked for spray tan sessions in front of the sex attacker while she was awaiting trial.
They demanded answers from college chiefs, who denied knowing of the rape charges, while women’s rights campaigners demanded better protection for students.
Rachel Ferguson, 21, said: “It really scares me to look back and realise she was watching me with no clothes on after being charged with this. It makes me feel physically sick and violated. We should have known about these charges. It’s not right that we didn’t know.”
Bryson first appeared in the dock more than three years ago for crimes committed in Clydebank and Glasgow in 2016 and 2019, while known as Adam Graham. Victims in the case told jurors at the High Court in Glasgow how they asked “muscular” Graham to stop before he forced himself upon them.
Students at Ayrshire College’s Kilwinning Campus say they worked alongside Bryson, then known to them as Annie, in 2021. They described her as “overpowering” and “disruptive”, saying classmates were repeatedly branded homophobic before Bryson was finally asked to leave the course.
Rachel, a nail technician from Dundonald, South Ayrshire, said: “We started college when she was beginning her transition. It was a class full of young girls. She was refusing to do practical stuff at first because she said she didn’t feel comfortable.
“We had all kinds of accusations thrown at us in the middle of the classroom. I was being verbally attacked. She went to the head of the department and said we were all discriminating against her and were homophobic. I was really offended and hurt by that and didn’t go to college for three weeks because I was scared of the way she was coming at me.
"I didn’t even look at her because if I did, it gave her ammunition to say things to me. The way she spoke to the lecturers was disgusting. She made two of them cry. I found her very forceful and intimidating. Her true self came out during that time.”
Rachel said her experience of being required to remove her clothes in front of Bryson had left her “sickened”. She said: “Being a beauty course, you need to take your clothes off for some of it. We were doing spray tanning at one point and I was a model. You need to stand practically naked.
"Looking back, with what we know now, it’s so scary to think she was watching me with no clothes on. Someone should have told a class full of young women what was going on. Anything could have happened.”
Rachel said Bryson was later asked to leave the course, which she understood was due to the allegations being made about students. Another former student Abi Nixon, 18, from Ardrossan, told of her shock at learning of Bryson’s conviction this week.
She said: “We all did the one-day spray tanning course. We had next to nothing on and this was before ‘Annie’ had been removed from the course. She hadn’t fully transitioned yet but we all accepted her for who she wanted to be. It was a complete and utter shock to the system to see what she had been convicted of."
Ayrshire College said it was unaware of the allegations against Bryson. A spokeswoman said: “We can confirm the individual was enrolled as a student at Ayrshire College for a three-month period in 2021 and is no longer a student with the College.
“Ayrshire College had no prior knowledge of this individual being charged with any offences. We will not be making any further comment on this matter.”
Bryson had been on bail until Tuesday, when she was remanded in custody by Lord Scott. Her first victim was attacked at a flat in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, having met on the Badoo dating site as Adam Graham, when her marriage to a woman ended.
The woman was raped after Bryson locked the door and got into bed beside her in September 2016. In pre-recorded testimony played to jurors, the woman told how she told a “muscular” Graham “no” as he forced himself upon her.
The second woman was raped at a flat in Drumchapel, Glasgow, in June 2019. Jurors heard how Graham shared “sexuality issues” with the victim after they met on social media site Bigo. The victim recalled feeling “crushed” when Graham raped her as they prepared to watch a film.
She stated: “I told him to stop and he did not. He kept going. That is when I closed my eyes and let him do what he wanted to do.” Bryson denied that charge and told the court: “I would never hurt any woman.”
Judge Lord Scott said Bryson had been convicted of two serious charges and a significant custodial sentence was inevitable when she returns to court next month. The court heard she has now started the process of gender re-assignment.
Since 2014, the Scottish Prison Service’s policy has been that prisoners should be accommodated on the basis of self-declared identity, subject to a risk assessment. That accommodation “should reflect the gender in which they are currently living”.
Bryson was remanded to Cornton Vale women’s prison near Stirling after conviction for the rapes. But she was moved to a male wing of HMP Edinburgh yesterday afternoon after Nicola Sturgeon announced Bryson would not serve her sentence at Cornton Vale, following a huge public outcry.
Opponents of the Scottish Government’s gender recognition reforms – which the UK Government has blocked from going for royal assent – said the case vindicated their concerns. Rape Crisis Scotland yesterday called for a better system to protect students as soon as allegations of sexual offences emerge.
A spokeswoman said: “Universities and colleagues have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their students. There must be a system of notifying institutions when someone applies for a course while currently awaiting trial for a crime as serious as rape.
“This case also speaks to the impact of lengthy delays in cases getting to court - this is a case which started in 2019. If there weren’t such lengthy delays in the system, a perpetrator of multiple rapes would not have been free to sign up for and attend such courses.”
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