Nicola Sturgeon has said she believes a double rapist is "almost certainly" claiming to be transgender as an "easy way out".
The First Minister today refused to state whether she believes Isla Bryson is a man or a woman, claiming she "does not have enough information".
The SNP leader was repeatedly pressed in parliament on the case of Bryson - previously known as Adam Graham - who was convicted at the High Court in Glasgow last month of two rapes.
Speaking at First Minister's Questions, Sturgeon said: "I think that rapist should be considered a rapist. That’s what I think.
"That individual has been convicted of rapes and that therefore is the terminology. I’m not going to get into the individual circumstances of that particular individual’s claims to be a woman because I don’t have enough information about that."
Bryson, 31, was last week convicted of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 while she was still a man.
But there was uproar after she was initially transferred from the High Court in Glasgow to Cornton Vale women's prison in Stirlingshire to await sentencing.
Scottish Conservatives leader Ross read a statement from one of the victims of Bryson, which said: "I’m sure he’s faking it…You’ve got genuine cases where people are desperate to get a reassignment for the right reasons because they have been born into that body – not because they raped two people and decided that that is an easy way out".
Sturgeon responded: "That quote that Douglas Ross narrated there, my feeling is that is almost certainly the case, which is why the key factor in this case is not the individual’s claim to be a woman, the key and only important factor in this is that the individual is convicted of rape – the individual is a rapist – and that is the factor that should be the deciding one about the decisions about how that prisoner is now treated."
Sturgeon went on to say it is "really important" to "look seriously" at the issues thrown up by the Bryson case, adding: "But that in doing so, we bear in mind two things.
"Firstly, as I’ve said, that we do not further stigmatise trans people generally – I think that is important – but secondly that we don’t cause undue concern amongst the public.
"If there are issues to be addressed we address them, but we do that in a way that’s not just calm, but doesn’t misrepresent the situation, because that is in nobody’s interest."
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