Infamous Scots. Isla Bryson.

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Isla Annie Bryson is a transgender woman from Clydebank, Scotland, who, prior to transitioning in 2020, raped two women in 2016 and 2019, and was convicted of those offences in 2023. Bryson was charged, and first appeared in court in 2019.

Bryson was remanded to a women’s prison while awaiting trial, and segregated from other prisoners pending risk assessment. Following public backlash, she was transferred to a men’s prison. The case was used to criticise the Scottish Parliament’s passage of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, despite it having been blocked by the British government (using Section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998).

During the controversy, the Scottish Prison Service announced an “urgent review” into the location of transgender inmates, and announced that trans people would be initially imprisoned according to their assigned sex rather than gender identity, until assessment could determine which was ultimately more appropriate for the individual.

Background

Bryson was born in 1991 and named Adam Binnie Bryson. Bryson married a woman in July 2016 and took on her surname, Graham. In September 2016 and June 2019, Bryson raped two women. One woman testified having met her as Adam Graham on the dating website Badoo. The other woman met Bryson, who was using the name DJ Blade, on Bigo Live.

Bryson appeared in court in July 2019 as Adam Graham, and was charged that year. In 2020, she came out as transgender, and changed her name to Isla Annie Bryson. As of May 2021, her legal name was Annie Bryson, but her legal gender was unchanged. In the 2023 trial, she testified that she knew she was trans since the age of four, Bryson’s mother and her estranged wife expressed scepticism about this. Her wife further accused Bryson of stabbing her and attempting to rape her, and said she had been trying to end their marriage for seven years, but had been unable to locate Bryson.

As of February 2023 Bryson was undergoing feminising hormone therapy.

Enrolment at Ayrshire College

In 2021 Bryson, awaiting trial, studied cosmetology at Ayrshire College’s campus in Kilwinning for three months, where she went by Annie. Most of her coursemates were younger women. Upon learning of her later rape conviction, three of her course-mates expressed feeling shocked and violated, as she had practised applying spray tan on them as part of a one-day course, during which they had worn little clothing. The college said that it had no knowledge of the charges against her at the time.

Susan Smith of the campaign group For Women Scotland[a] called it “terrifying” that Bryson’s name change had allowed her to “hide her identities and gain access to young women”. The lawyer Thomas Ross said that, under law, people accused of crimes are not obliged to disclose that fact. He called the situation a catch-22 for institutions, that would have to choose between putting other students at risk by allowing that person to attend, or discriminating against someone with the presumption of innocence.

Trial

Bryson was tried at the High Court of Justiciary in Glasgow in January 2023. The prosecution, the advocate depute John Keenan, described how she had “preyed on two vulnerable female partners” after meeting them online. Bryson denied the rape charges, saying the sex had been consensual, and that she was “in no way a predatory male”. Bryson’s defence, Edward Targowski, argued that she was also vulnerable due being transgender.

Bryson was convicted of the rapes on 24 January 2023, making her the first trans woman known to be convicted of rape in Scotland. The presiding judge, Lord Scott, warned her that a “significant custodial sentence” was inevitable. Following her conviction, Police Scotland declared that Bryson had been arrested and charged as a man, and that her crimes would therefore be recorded as having been committed by a man.

On 28 February 2023 Bryson was sentenced to eight years in prison, with a further three years of supervision upon release. She was also placed on the Violent and Sex Offender Register for life. The court heard reports of Bryson having neurodevelopmental problems. In his summary, Lord Scott said Bryson continued to deny the crimes, and had claimed, without evidence, that the victims had colluded against her:

You see yourself as the victim in this case. But you are not […] Your vulnerability is no excuse at all for what you did to these two women in 2016 and 2019. Regardless of your own vulnerability, in a period of just under three years, you raped two women who can both be regarded as vulnerable.