UK: Convicted Trans Rapist Isla Bryson To Serve Sentence In Male Prison
Officials in Scotland have announced that a transgender woman convicted of crimes committed when she was a man would spend her time in a jail populated entirely by men.
After rumours surfaced that Isla Bryson had been relocated to the Cornton Vale women's jail, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon declared on Thursday that Bryson will not be housed there "either short term or long term."
Lawmakers and even United Nations officials voiced disapproval when they learned that Bryson was being held in a facility exclusively for women.
"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 the Scottish Parliament.
To quote the judge: "We now have the utterly perverse situation where a Scottish court refers to someone who says he identifies as female using ‘her 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 alluding to a new law approved in Scotland only last month that removes the requirement of a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria to apply for a gender recognition certificate and officially change one's legal sex.
This week, after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow, Bryson, 31, was found guilty of raping two women while she identified as a man previously called Adam Graham. During a six-day trial, prosecutors successfully argued that Bryson assaulted two separate victims in 2016 and 2019.
After his initial court appearance, Bryson changed his name.
In a 2020 court indictment, the defendant is referred to by his former name, Graham, which he used in his initial court appearance. According to accounts in the British press, she decided to transition later that year.