Trans rapist Isla Bryson told ‘you are not the victim’ before being jailed for eight years

A judge told the transgender rapist Isla Bryson that they were not “the victim in this situation”, as the 31-year-old was jailed for eight years.

Bryson, who committed the attacks while still known as Adam Graham, was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on Tuesday morning.

Lord Scott said that while he had access to medical reports which suggested Bryson was “vulnerable”, in part due to traumatic childhood events, this was “no excuse” for raping two women who had been “systematically” targeted.

Bryson claimed during the trial that they had known they were transgender at age four, although this was later questioned by their wife and mother who both said they had shown no interest in transitioning. Bryson only began living as a woman after being charged with rape.

The case was seen as contributing to the end of Nicola Sturgeon’s political career after the double rapist was initially sent to a female prison under a Scottish Prison Service (SPS) policy that followed the same principle as her gender self-ID laws.

The legislation has been blocked by the UK Government while the SPS has scrapped its own rules following an outcry. Bryson was moved to a male jail following an outcry although Ms Sturgeon has repeatedly refused to say whether she believes the rapist to be male or female.

‘Alternative account of events’

Sentencing Bryson, Lord Scott said it was clear that Bryson would pose a “particularly significant risk to any woman with whom you form a relationship”.

He said they had constructed “an alternative account of events” in which the two victims colluded together, and continued to deny the crimes.

The claims of a conspiracy were “without any foundation” and had been rejected by the jury, he said.

“You see yourself as the victim in this situation,” Lord Scott said. “You are not. Regardless of your own vulnerability, in a period of just under three years, you raped two women who can both be regarded as vulnerable.”

Edward Targowski KC, for the defence, told the High Court in Edinburgh that Bryson had been subjected to “ill-judged, ill-informed and ignorant” comments about their decision to undergo gender reassignment. He said this included references to Bryson’s “dead name” of Adam Graham.

The lawyer also told the court that Bryson had decided to change their gender many years ago and had been given “maximum” amounts of medication to help achieve this by doctors at the Sandyford Clinic, a specialist clinic in Glasgow.

Bryson was on an NHS waiting list which was several years long for a gender reassignment operation, Mr Targowski said.

However, Bryson’s estranged wife, Shonna Graham, has described claims to identify as a woman as “a sham”. The rapist’s mother, Janet Bryson, said her son never showed any interest in living as a girl while growing up.

Bryson attacked two women in Clydebank and Glasgow in 2016 and 2019. They were both raped in their own homes, after Bryson met them online, a setting in which Lord Scott said they “were entitled to feel entirely safe”.

Russell Findlay, the Scottish Tory shadow community safety minister, said that Bryson may serve as little as four years, a prospect that “will likely be of little comfort to victims”.

‘Full scrutiny’

He added: “They’ve already suffered from the perverse decision to address this rapist as ‘she’ and by Nicola Sturgeon and her justice secretary refusing to say what everyone in Scotland can see with their own eyes - that Bryson is a man.

“Even following Nicola Sturgeon’s sudden resignation, the SNP government continues to attempt to dupe the public by saying this case has nothing to do with its gender self-ID bill.

“But if this SNP law is enacted, it will be wide open to exploitation by giving the legal right to sex offenders to declare they are female, no matter the risks to women and girls.

“Going forward, the prison service must publish its delayed new policy on transgender prisoners, allowing for full scrutiny, feedback and, if necessary, amendment.”

Bryson was placed on the sex offenders’ register and will be supervised for three years after release.