Trans rapist locked up for just 8 years for attacks on two women
She’s sent to tough men’s jail
A TRANSGENDER double rapist whose case caused outrage was jailed for eight years yesterday after a judge said she remains a ‘significant risk’ to women.
Isla Bryson attacked two vulnerable female victims in their own homes near Glasgow while living as a man.
She began transitioning from male to female after being charged with the rapes, which took place in 2016 and 2019. The 31year-old was initially held in an all-women’s prison after being found guilty, before being moved to a male facility as a row broke out about Scottish gender laws.
Sentencing Bryson at Edinburgh High Court yesterday, judge Lord Scott said: ‘It is plain that you present a particularly significant risk to any woman with whom you form a relationship.’
The rapist will serve her sentence at HMP Edinburgh, a men’s jail. Bryson, appearing in court wearing a blonde bob wig, black leggings and a fluorescent pink jacket, was criticised by the judge for painting herself as the victim.
The judge said: ‘Without any foundation, you claim to believe that the two victims may know each other and have colluded in their claims.
‘You have constructed an alternative account of events which was rejected by the jury. I will therefore ignore it. You see yourself as the victim in this situation. You are not.’
Bryson is still pursuing full gender reassignment and is on ‘the maximum recommended doses of hormone prescription’, the court heard.
The judge handed out an extended sentence of eight years in jail, and a further three years on licence in the community. She could be recalled to prison if she breaches her licence. Under Scottish law, an offender given an extended sentence serves the full prison part of the punishment, unless the Parole Board recommends early release. Scottish Justice Secretary Keith Brown previously ordered an urgent review of the case and the Scottish Prison Service halted the movement of all transgender prisoners with a history of violence against women into the female estate. Bryson first appeared in court as a man in 2019 and was 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 court heard Bryson was going through the breakdown of a brief marriage and stayed with the first victim at her mother’s house in Clydebank in 2016.
Giving evidence on prerecorded video, the victim, 30, said she was raped for half an hour. The second victim, who gave evidence via live videolink, told the court Bryson continued to have sex with her after she said stop.
The case proved tricky for Nicola Sturgeon, who refused to back down on her party’s self-identification system for people who want to change gender, which set the Scottish government on a collision course with Westminster.
She announced her decision to stand down as first minister last month amid the furore.
‘You are not the victim’