The wife of a transgender rapist who is to be held in a women’s prison despite being convicted of raping two women has said her transition is a “sham”.
Shonna Graham, who married Isla Bryson when she was still a man and known as Adam Graham, said she believes she is trying to scam the court system.
Ms Graham, 31, said she has sympathy with people who want to transition, but thinks her estranged husband has “come up with a ploy” to get an easier sentence.
“Never once did he say anything to me about feeling he was in the wrong body or anything. I have a lot of sympathy for real transgender people, it's a hard thing to live with,” she told MailOnline.
“His gender transition is a sham for attention and an easier life in prison. When I saw the photos of him dressed as a woman with a blonde wig and pink lycra leggings, I fell out of bed laughing.
“I can see why he doesn't want to be in a prison with loads of big scary men, so he's come up with this ploy to get himself a much easier sentence.”
Ms Graham, who met Bryson on a dating app in 2015 before marrying a year later, described the decision to send her to a women’s prison as “outrageous”.
“Will one of the vulnerable women inmates be the next victim to be attacked by him? He won't stop, it's in his nature,” she said.
Downing Street expressed “concerns” on Wednesday about the Scottish Government's decision to place a male-bodied rapist in a women’s prison, in a move that will put pressure on Nicola Sturgeon to reverse the decision.
Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, tweeted that such a move would not happen south of the border after the Government overhauled rules to prevent trans sex offenders from being held in women’s prisons.
Under the changes, due to be introduced within weeks in English and Welsh jails, Mr Raab said transgender women who had committed sex crimes or retained male genitalia could not be held in women’s prisons except in the most exceptional cases authorised by ministers.
Unlike the row over Ms Sturgeon’s proposed liberalisation of the transgender laws in Scotland, which the UK Government has said it will block, the decision on the transgender rapist has no wider impact on the UK’s equality laws or practices in English and Welsh jails.
Bryson, 31, was previously known as Adam Graham and transitioned only after being accused of the sex attacks. The jury in the trial, at the High Court in Glasgow, was told that Adam Graham was the defendant’s “dead name”.
It is understood there was a presumption that Bryson would be sent initially to Cornton Vale as the rapist had been addressed as a woman during the trial. The judge referred to the defendant as “Ms Bryson”.
Bryson is due to be sentenced next month and is facing a long prison sentence. It was claimed during the trial that the rapist had known about their trans status at the age of four. However, they began to be known as Isla after the rape charges.
Bryson was found guilty of raping one woman in Clydebank in 2016 and another in Drumchapel, Glasgow, in 2019.
