Charges have been filed against a man in connection with alleged threatening and abusive behavior after Isla Bryson, a 31-year-old Scottish transgender ‘woman’ who is presently serving an eight-year prison sentence for raping two women, lodged a formal hate crime complaint. The transgender double rapist claims transphobic abuse is rampant in prison.
After being convicted by Edinburgh’s High Court in February on two separate rape charges—one in 2016 and the other in 2019—while living as a man, Bryson, who was born with the name Adam Graham, was initially placed in a female prison before being transferred to the male prison, HPM Edinburgh.
In a letter sent to the Scottish tabloid Sunday Mail, Bryson said that he has been treated like a “monster” during his time at the all-male correctional facility, and claimed it is “full of transphobic people” who are “breaking the human rights laws.”
Bryson, who coincidentally—or perhaps not—began the transitioning process and adopted the name Isla after being slapped with two rape charges, told the newspaper that he is not “doing too good because of abuse from the staff members all because I’m transgender and other prisoners too.”
He further claimed: “The police are involved because of the abuse to do with my gender. People won’t stop being transphobic.”
Now, authorities in Scotland have seemingly backed up Bryson’s account, with a police spokesperson confirming Monday, July 3rd, that a 24-year-old man, whose name has yet to be released to the public, has been charged with threatening and abusive behavior after Bryson filed a hate crime report early last month.
The transgender double rapist’s claims come amid an ongoing debate in Scotland and elsewhere regarding where transgender prisoners ought to be placed. While some argue housing transgender inmates with male genitalia impinges upon the rights of female prisoners, others contend that having them serve sentences in all-male prisons amounts to a human rights violation.
In a commentary piece published by UnHerd on the matter, Joan Smith, an author who previously served as the Chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board before she was allegedly sacked for saying women should not have to share safe spaces with “individuals who have male bodies,” wrote:
Female prisoners should never have been used as human shields to protect trans-identified males from other men. Bryson is a convicted sex offender, serving an eight-year sentence, and his complaints are not an argument for moving him to a women’s prison. They are, however, an illustration of the folly of allowing public policy to be influenced by gender warriors, with dire results for both women and trans-identified prisoners.
Some legal experts, however, have suggested that the transgender rapist could have grounds to take action against the state for having been placed in an all-male prison by invoking human rights violations. They say the rapist could, in theory, argue that being housed in a male correctional facility as a transitioning person constitutes a breach under Article 8 of the UK’s Human Rights Act and the “right to a private life.”
