A transgender rapist who raped two women while still a man has been jailed for eight years.
Isla Bryson was convicted last month of raping two women – one in Clydebank in 2016 and one in Drumchapel, Glasgow, in 2019 – and committed the offences while a man known as Adam Graham. The 31-year-old, from Clydebank, met both the victims online and prosecutors said Bryson had “preyed” on vulnerable women.
The case sparked uproar after Bryson was initially housed in an all-female prison and the rapist was then moved to the male estate. Scottish Justice Secretary Keith Brown ordered an urgent review of the case and the Scottish Prison Service took the decision to halt the movement of all transgender prisoners with a history of violence against women into the female estate.
On Tuesday (February 28), Bryson was sentenced to eight years in prison at the High Court in Edinburgh, with a further three years on licence. The 31-year-old first appeared in court as Adam Graham in 2019 and was later named in court papers the following year – around the time of the decision to transition – as Isla Annie Bryson, formerly known as Adam Graham.
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 Bryson was “crushing” the victim.
The victim’s police statement said Bryson instead told her to “stay there” because “he (Bryson) wasn’t finished”. The victim told the court: “I said to stop but he (Bryson) 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. Bryson spoke of identifying as transgender at the age of four but not making the decision to transition until age 29.
The court heard Bryson is currently taking hormones and seeking surgery to complete gender reassignment.
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