Male rapist who transitioned himself before trial, sent to all-female prison as transgender woman

Isla Bryson, a transgender woman found guilty of raping two women, was sent to an all-female prison while awaiting sentencing

By Edward Era Barbacena

A transgender woman in the United Kingdom who was convicted of raping two women when he was a man is being sent to a female prison to await sentencing, prompting outcry from activists, politicians and even United Nations officials.

Isla Bryson of Scotland was found guilty this week of committing the rapes when he was previously named Adam Graham, a “muscular” man with a shaved head and a face tattoo, according to a report in the Daily Mail. Bryson denied the charges, telling the high court of Glasgow that any sex was consensual and he “would never hurt another human being.”

However, prosecutors successfully argued to jurors over a six-day trial that Bryson, 31, attacked one victim in 2016 and another in 2019. Both crimes took place in Scotland.

The defendant first appeared in court as Adam Graham and was referred to as such in a 2020 court indictment. It was later that year, according to British press reports, that he decided to transition.

Bryson claimed to the court that he knew he was transgender at the age of 4 but didn’t make the decision to transition until she was 29. he told jurors that Adam Graham was his “dead name.”

Now Bryson is taking hormones and seeking surgery to complete gender reassignment.

He’s currently being held at Cornton Vale women’s prison, where he’s reportedly being kept in segregation until sentencing at the end of February. At Cornton, the convicted rapist will undergo a risk assessment to determine whether he’ll serve the final jail sentence in a women’s or men’s prison.

If Bryson is sent to a women’s prison for the duration of his sentence, it’s unclear whether he’d remain in segregation. Some observers have argued it would breach his human rights to be held in solitary confinement indefinitely.

To critics, however, such debates are beside the point.

“This rapist decided that he was no longer a man only after appearing in court on a rape charge,” said Russell Findlay, a conservative member of Scottish Parliament. “We now have the utterly perverse situation where a Scottish court refers to someone who says he identifies as female using ‘his penis’ to rape two vulnerable women. We warned of the inevitability of this happening if the SNP’s gender self-ID law passed, but for it to have become reality is deeply worrying and an affront to the victims.”

Findlay was referring to a law passed by Scottish Parliament last month that allows people as young as 16 to seek a gender recognition certificate to confirm a change in one’s legal sex after living in their new gender for just three months — and without the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.