‘HIS TRANSITION’S A SHAM FOR ATTENTION SO HE GETS AN EASIER LIFE IN PRISON’
THE estranged wife of a transgender rapist last night mocked her ex-partner’s decision to become a woman as ‘a sham’ to seek attention – and get an easier time in prison.
Shonna Graham married Adam Graham who, identifying as a man, went on to rape two women before changing his name to Isla Bryson to begin the process of gender reassignment.
On Tuesday, Bryson, 31, was convicted by a jury in Scotland and sent to a special wing of a women’s prison before sentencing. But, speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Mrs Graham, 31, said she believes his transition – which came after he was charged and had appeared in court for the first time – is an act to make a mockery of the UK justice system.
She added: ‘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 – but he’s just bullsh ***** g the authorities.
‘I believe 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.’
She continued: ‘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.
‘But sending him to a women’s prison is 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.’
Bryson’s case has highlighted the controversy over Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (GRR), which would allow anyone over 16 to ‘self identify’ and seek a Gender
‘I hope they throw away the key’
Recognition Certificate (GRC) after living in their new gender for only three months and without needing a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
The Scottish Prison Service takes the decision on where to place trans inmates, looking at each case individually and not dependent on whether the person has a GRC or has undergone any physical transformation.
Yesterday, as Bryson was being held at Cornton Vale women’s prison in Stirling, there were calls for her to serve her sentence in a men’s prison.
Scottish Nationalist Party MP Joanna Cherry told Times Radio: ‘Many women in prison have themselves been abused and have suffered injuries over the years. And so they’re particularly vulnerable... I’m very concerned about the safety of women prisoners, with whom a convicted rapist has been placed.’
Mrs Graham said she might go and visit Bryson wherever she ends up, if only to serve their divorce papers and finally end a marriage that effectively lasted less than two months.
‘I have been trying to divorce him for seven years, but I haven’t been able to find him to serve the papers. He’s a monster and I hope they throw away the key,’ she added.
She revealed she endured a year of abusive and controlling behaviour at the hands of Bryson, during which time she claims he stabbed her in the hip with a knife as he tried to rape her.
Mrs Graham met the shavenheaded Graham – who has a Mike Tyson-style face tattoo – on the internet dating app Badoo in 2015 and at first found him ‘caring and fun to be with’.
But after he moved into her flat in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, she
soon saw a different side to him. ‘He was obsessed with controlry ling ever aspect of my life,’ she recalled. ‘Even if I spoke to an elderly male neighbour, he’d be on my case accusing me of chatup. ‘One night we had a row and I went into the bedroom while he watched TV in the living room. Suddenly he burst in with a pinkd kitchen knife and handled demanded sex.
‘I told him where to go and he pulled down my pyjama trousers and tried to rape me.
‘Then when I’d pleaded with him to get off, I realised he’d stabbed me in the thigh.
‘There was blood everywhere, staining the carpet, but he delayed calling an ambulance for about half an hour and I remember I was starting to feel faint by the time they came.’
She added: ‘When we got to hospital, the police were called and they saw it as what it was – domestic abuse – but Adam had pleaded with me to say I’d tried to commit suicide and the wound was self-inflicted, which is what I did.
‘The police tried to convince me to give evidence against him but I wasn’t brave enough. Now I feel guilty because if I had, maybe he’d have gone to prison sooner and those two poor women who did testify against him wouldn’t have had to suffer in the way they did. I was terrified of him and what he might do next, so despite that incident, I did go ahead and marry him a few months later. My friends told me to steer clear of him, but I didn’t listen.’
The small marriage ceremony at Falkirk Register Office on July 8, 2016 was witnessed by only a handful of Mrs Graham’s friends and family. No one attended on the groom’s side.
The marriage did not last long and according to Mrs Graham, Bryson was texting other women even when he was with her.
‘He walked out on August 16, 2016, about five weeks after we were wed,’ she recalled.
‘We heard he’d found another woman and I cannot tell you the relief I felt that he was out of my life. I would have divorced him long before now, but I never knew where he was to serve the papers. Maybe I’ll visit him in Cornton Vale [women’s prison] and sever my ties with him once and for all.’
Mrs Graham, from Falkirk, added: ‘What made me really angry when reading the court case was how he claimed to have
‘I was terrified of what he might do’
been abused during our relationship when it was him doling out the abuse.
‘However hard I try, I cannot think of him as a woman in any sense. No woman would treat me the way he did.’
Bryson claimed in court to have had gender issues since the age of four. He began transitioning from a man to a woman in 2020 after being charged with the rapes, committed in 2016 and 2019.
The rapist has been taking hormones but has not had any surgery. Calls were growing yesterday for Bryson to be transferred to a men’s prison.
Scottish Conservative MSP Russell Findlay said the case was an ‘utterly perverse’ example of the risks attached to changes to gender self-identification. British prime minister Rishi Sunak’s official spokesman said he could not comment on the case but added: ‘I’ve seen the reporting and understand the concerns.’
Ms Sturgeon told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme: ‘There is no automatic right for a trans woman convicted of an offence to go to a women’s prison. The Scottish Prison Service individually assesses all prisoners or potential prisoners. This is about individual risk assessments.’