By Sheila Mckenzie-
A trans woman who raped two women before she changed gender has been moved to a men’s prison, following the approval of Scotland’s first rime minister, Nicolai Sturgeon.
Bryson (pictured)is due to be sentenced next month after being convicted of the rapes on Tuesday. It is the first time a trans woman has been convicted of raping women in Scotland.
Rapist Isla Bryson was remanded to Cornton Vale women’s prison in Stirling after being convicted of carrying out the rapes when she was a man called Adam Graham.
Although Bryson transitioned from a man to a woman while awaiting trial, she was taken to a male wing of a male prison on Thursday afternoon.
The decision throws into sharp focus the controversial legislation by the Scottish Parliament to allow individuals as young as 16 to identify as the gender they have transitioned to, but the practical implications of that legislation is proving contradictory in cases like this where the law reverts to recognising their identity at birth. The is a conspicuous lack of consistency here for the Scottish government to contend with.
The Scottish Parliament was thrown into controversy last month, after it passed legislation last month aimed at making it easier for people to change their legally-recognised sex, but Ms Sturgeon has said the changes did not play any part in the Bryson case.
The Gender Recognition Reform Bill was blocked by the UK government over its potential impact on equalities laws that apply across Scotland, England and Wales.
Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs Isla Bryson will not serve her sentence in a female jail.
Speaking at First Minister’s Questions in the Scottish Parliament, Ms Sturgeon said she agreed that it was not possible to have a male rapist within a women’s prison.
However, Sturgeon did not reconcile her decision with the new legislation in Scotland about which she had criticised the Uk government for refusing to endorse.
The first minister’s decision raises logical questions about the rationale of approving transitioning for individuals suffering from gender dysphoria on the one hand, while effectively not recognising their proposed legalised status when they commit crimes like rape.
Advocates of transitioning for gender dysphoric individuals have cases like this as a potential conundrum for the ideals they advocate to solve.
Students at Cambridge university staged a massive protest last year when controversial author Helen Joyce was invited to the university to give a speech which proved unpopular for LGBQ students. Joyce is a fierce critic of gender transitioning, and her views are offensive to LGBT groups and liberal thinkers who say people should be allowed to choose the gender that makes them comfortable.
The same issue poses questions for transgender women convicted for domestic violence against their female partners while they identified as their gender at birth whey they were still legally recognised as males.
The Eye Of Media.Com has heard that the implications of this ruling by the Scottish government will form the basis of a discussion and debate by the intellectual students of Cambridge university in due course.
Referring directly to the Bryson case, she said: “It would not be appropriate for me, in respect of any prisoner, to give details of where they are being incarcerated.
“But given the understandable public and parliamentary concern in this case, I can confirm to parliament that this prisoner will not be incarcerated at Cornton Vale women’s prison.
“I hope that provides assurance to the public.”
The first minister said any prisoner who posed a risk of sexual offending was segregated from other prisoners including while a risk assessment was carried out.
She said: “There is no automatic right for a trans woman convicted of a crime to serve their sentence in a female prison even if they have a gender recognition certificate.
“Every case is subject to rigorous individual risk assessment and the safety of other prisoners is paramount.”
The sexual offences was carried out while she was known as Adam Graham
The first minister also stressed it was careful that people “do not, even inadvertently, suggest that trans women pose an inherent threat to women”, adding: “Predatory men, as has always been the case, are the risk to women.”
Speaking to journalists outside the chamber, Ms Sturgeon said she had not given any “formal direction” to the Scottish Prison Service on removing Bryson from Cornton Vale.
A spokesman for the first minister would not say if it was now Scottish government policy to bar all rapists from female prisons.
Scottish Justice Secretary Keith Brown said on Wednesday that he trusted the prison service to decide on the correct venue for trans prisoners.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said his party had “warned for months” during the debate over the gender reforms that “violent criminals just like the sex offender, the absolute beast we are discussing today, would try to exploit loopholes in the law and attack and traumatise women.”
He added: “It should not have taken public disgust and a slew of negative headlines about a double rapist being sent to a women’s prison for Nicola Sturgeon to realise this was completely unacceptable and wrong.
“She and her justice secretary have the power to impose a blanket ban on all rapists being sent to women’s prisons, so why is she refusing to exercise it?
“It suggests Nicola Sturgeon’s screeching U-turn in the Bryson case was down to fears over the political risk to herself rather than the safety risk to women prisoners.”
Bryson’s estranged wife, Shonna Graham, 31, said she had a “lot of sympathy for real trans people” but claimed her former partner’s transition was a “sham for attention” and that Bryson is attempting to fool the authorities.
Ms Graham told the Daily Mail: “Never once did he say anything to me about feeling he was in the wrong body or anything”, and accused Bryson of being abusive in their relationship.
During the rape trial, Bryson claimed she knew she was transgender at the age of four but did not make the decision to transition until she was 29, and is currently taking hormones and seeking surgery to complete gender reassignment.
Unfortunately for her, this vie rapist, she will be taken back to her past life of identifying as a man in a male prison, despite officially being a transgender woman. How she will cope in prison with the stigma of being a rapist on top of the discrimination that accompanies being a transgender is a plight she will have to contend with.
Image: Andrewilliagn/PA