A Sottish man who was convicted of the rapes of two women has now lodged a formal hate crime complaint of ‘transphobia’ against a man while incarcerated. Adam Graham, 31, who now goes by the name Isla Bryson, sent letters to the Sunday Mail wherein he complained about his current placement at the men’s facility, saying: “This jail is full of transphobic people.”
Bryson told the news outlet that he had been treated like a “monster” in the correctional center, and implied that he intended to pursue further legal action.
“They are breaking the human rights laws. I’m not doing too good because of abuse from the staff members all because I am transgender and other prisoners too,” Bryson said.
“This jail is full of transphobic people. The police are involved because of the abuse to do with my gender. People won’t stop being transphobic.”
The convicted rapist also set a fee of £1,000 (approx. $1,200 USD) for media interviews, and wrote: “If you want to interview me it will cost you £1,000. If you refuse then that’s on you. I am not doing it for free so you can twist my words.”
Currently incarcerated at HMP Edinburgh, Bryson has reportedly filed a hate crime charge against an unnamed, 24 year-old man.
A Police Scotland spokesman told The Independent: “Around 11am on Thursday 8 June 2023, we received a report of a hate crime at HMP Edinburgh. A 24-year-old man has been charged in connection with threatening and abusive behavior. A report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.”
In February, Bryson was handed an eight-year sentence after being found guilty of raping two women in incidents that occurred in 2016 and 2019. He was referred to with feminine pronouns both in court and in UK media coverage, with court documents stating he had been charged with raping the women with “her penis.”
Through a pre-recorded statement, one victim gave testimony to the court noting that she had met Bryson on dating app Badoo in July of 2016. After establishing rapport, Bryson claimed he was being abused by a female partner. Concerned for his safety and wellbeing, the victim offered Bryson shelter at her mother’s property, where she also lived, until which time he could be moved into a homeless unit.
According to the Clydebank Post, on the night of the assault, Bryson entered the bedroom where she had been preparing for bed and locked the door. At first, the victim thought Bryson was cuddling her, but said “everything felt weird and wrong.”
Bryson then pulled the woman’s pajamas down and raped her despite her vocal protests. The assault only stopped when the victim’s mother turned on the hallway light outside of the bedroom.
Three years later, on June 27, 2019, Bryson is said to have assaulted a second woman at an apartment in Glasgow.
After having engaged in consensual sexual activity, the victim states, Bryson became sexually violent and assaulted her. The court heard that Bryson allegedly bit the victim, lay on top of her and restrained her, and went on to rape the woman “to her injury.”
After his arrest in January, Bryson was set to be detained in a women’s prison for up to a month while awaiting sentencing.
Following international outcry, Scotland’s former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon walked back the decision and announced an urgent review of the policies surrounding the housing or transfer of transgender inmates – despite her own campaigning favorably for self-identification policies. Scotland’s Parliament had previously struck down an amendment to the recent Gender Recognition Reform Bill which would have prevented convicted sex offenders from changing their legal sex marker.
During the trial, Bryson was called “vulnerable,” and the defending counsel argued that the he was “in no way a predatory male.” Defending him at the High Court in Glasgow, lawyer Edward Targowski was heard comparing Bryson to his victims, claiming that all three individuals involved in the case should be considered “vulnerable,” including the rapist.
“If you look at the circumstances, you do not have a predatory male — you have somebody who is vulnerable,” he added.
Targowski also leveraged Bryson’s self-declared transgender status in his defense, as reported by The Daily Mail, and told the court: “She is transitioning from male to female gender. If you accept that evidence, that she is transitioning, that she is aiming to continue on that path to becoming female gender, that goes a long way to acquitting her of these charges.”
In the wake of continuing controversy, a former college classmate of Isla Bryson’s came forward to share her insight into the sexual predator. Sharyn Muir, who attended Ayrshire College with him in 2021, told Reduxx that while participating with him in the college’s LGBTQIA+ and allies group, Bryson had complained that he had been “mistreated” by police, alleging that they were “transphobic” and had used incorrect pronouns to address him.
Last fall, it was revealed that half of Scotland’s prisoners who claim a transgender status began doing so only after they had been convicted of a crime. In response to a Freedom of Information request, the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) confirmed there were 16 trans inmates in Scots prisons, of whom eight began to identify as transgender while “being cared for in custody following their remand or conviction for their current offence”.
However, the SPS said it was unable to disclose whether or not there were allegations of sexual misconduct involving the trans-identifying male prisoners due to the cost that would be involved in providing the information.
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