Isla Bryson, 31, formerly known as Adam Graham
(Picture: PA Wire)The decision to send transgender double rapist Isla Bryson to a women’s prison was an “unnecessary shambles”, a former prison chief has said.
Bryson, 31, was moved to the male section of HMP Edinburgh following days of fury after she was remanded to a women’s prison for a risk assessment, ahead of a sentencing hearing next month.
Bryson raped two women while living as a man, and began transitioning from male to female in 2020, after she was charged with two sex attacks.
She was initially held at Cornton Vale during a 72-hour segregated assessment period this week. Rhona Hotchkiss, who ran Cornton Vale until 2017, said she would have refused to have Bryson at the prison.
She told BBC Scotland: “I would have refused to have this person in Cornton Vale, I’m afraid. It just goes against all natural justice.
“I would have insisted there was no reason for this person to be assessed in Cornton Vale.
“It’s wrong to use segregation when it’s not strictly necessary and in my opinion that’s what has happened here.”
The extraordinary case enraged opponents of Nicola Sturgeon’s Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) Bill. They said it demonstrated the potential risks of allowing gender self-identification without the need for medical evidence or diagnosis, which the Bill would permit.
Ms Hotchkiss said: “If you can get a Gender Recognition Certificate within three months, lots of male prisoners will do it.”
She added: “We need third units for trans people and they should be in male prisons.”
Ms Hotchkiss said it was “simply not acceptable” to allow all trans prisoners to go to a jail matching their gender identity.
“It’s unbalancing rights. They are not considering the rights of women.
“They are only considering one side of this equation. It seems to me quite wrong.”
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross was among several who questioned why Bryson had initially been placed in the female-only jail after being remanded into custody prior to sentencing.
Branding Bryson a “beast”, Mr Ross said: “This double rapist only decided to change gender after he was charged by the police.
“It took the threat of jail for this criminal to decide to change his gender. That’s not a coincidence, that is a conscious decision.
“We think it is wrong that a rapist is sent to a women’s prison. We believe a rapist having access to a women’s single-sex space is a threat.”
A Scottish Prison Service spokesman said: “Decisions by the SPS as to the most appropriate location to accommodate transgender people are made on an individualised basis, informed by a multi-disciplinary assessment of both risk and need.
“Such decisions seek to protect both the wellbeing and rights of the individual as well as the welfare and rights of others around them, including staff, in order to achieve an outcome that balances risks and promotes the safety of all, and that is exactly what has happened in this case.”
Bryson’s estranged wife Shonna Graham, 31, claimed her former partner’s transition was a “sham for attention” and that she is attempting to fool the authorities.
“Never once did he say anything to me about feeling he was in the wrong body or anything,” Ms Graham told the Daily Mail.
“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.”
