A transgender sex offender who raped two women while still living as a man has been jailed for eight years. Isla Bryson was convicted last month of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 while still living as a man known as Adam Graham.
The 31-year-old met both her victims online with prosecutors saying she had “preyed” on vulnerable women. After the jury at the High Court in Glasgow delivered its guilty verdict, judge Lord Scott told Bryson the crimes were “considerable” and that “a significant sentence is inevitable”.
Appearing for sentencing at the High Court in Edinburgh on Tuesday, Bryson was also placed under three years supervision following her release. Judge Lord Scott placed Bryson on the sex offenders register “indefinitely”.
He told Bryson: “You see yourself as the victim in this situation. You are not.”
The judge added: “You vehemently deny that you committed either of these offences.”
Lord Scott said Bryson claimed without evidence that the victims may know each other and “colluded” in their claims. The court heard Bryson was considered a “vulnerable adult” and had suffered “serious adverse childhood experiences”.
But the judge added: “You raped two women who could both be regarded as vulnerable.” He said Bryson had “preyed on these women because of their vulnerabilities and raped them in their own homes”.
The judge said Bryson posed a “high risk” of sexual reoffending. He told Bryson: “You are not yet ready at this stage of accepting what you did or the serious harm you have inflicted on vulnerable women.”
The judge said Bryson “presented a particularly significant risk to any woman with whom you form a relationship”.
The case sparked an uproar after Bryson was initially housed in an all-female prison before being moved to the male estate following the outcry.
Bryson first appeared in court as Adam Graham in 2019 and was later named in court papers the following year – around the time of the decision to transition – as Isla Annie Bryson, formerly known as Adam Graham.
During the trial, the court heard that Bryson was going through the breakdown of a brief, unhappy, marriage and went to stay with the first victim at the victim’s mother’s house in Clydebank in 2016.
Giving evidence on pre-recorded video, the victim, 30, said she was raped for half an hour. “All I said was ‘no’ over and over and over again,” she said. “At the time I was so scared. Sick to the stomach. I just didn’t know what was going on.”
The second victim, who gave evidence via live video-link, told the court Bryson continued to have sex with her after she said stop. The court heard Bryson entered the victim with “her penis”, and was told to stop because Bryson was “crushing” the victim.
The victim’s police statement said Bryson instead told her to “stay there” because “he (Bryson) wasn’t finished”. The victim told the court: “I said to stop but he (Bryson) just kept on going, and that’s when I just closed my eyes and I am doing what he wanted to do.”
Giving evidence during the trial, Bryson claimed both women consented to having sex. Bryson spoke of identifying as transgender at the age of four but not making the decision to transition until the age of 29.
The court heard that Bryson is currently taking hormones and seeking surgery to complete gender reassignment.
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