Isla Bryson

In January 2023, Isla Bryson, a 31-year-old Scottish transgender woman from Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, was convicted of the rapes of two women.

Bryson was assigned male at birth in 1991 and named Adam Binnie Bryson.

The rapes occurred in 2016 and 2019, prior to Bryson's gender transition.

In July 2016, Bryson married a woman with the surname Graham.

Bryson committed rape against two women, one in September 2016 and one in June 2019.

The first victim testified in Bryson's trial that she knew Bryson from a dating website, Badoo, where Bryson went under the name Adam Graham.

The second victim testified in Bryson's trial that she knew Bryson from a social media app, Bigo, where Bryson went under the name of DJ Blade.

Bryson was charged in 2019 and started transitioning in 2020.

Bryson attended a beauty course in 2021 before her trial, with coursemates and courseholder Ayrshire College stating that they were unaware of Bryson's charges.

The case caused controversy after Bryson was remanded to a women's prison to await sentence, though she was segregated from the other prisoners pending risk assessment, following which she was transferred to a male prison.

The case was subsequently used to criticise the Scottish Parliament's passage of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, despite the bill not having been in effect at the time.

Following controversy over the Bryson case, the Scottish Prison Service announced an "urgent review" into the transgender cases within its prisons, pausing the movement of any trans prisoners while the review was in progress.

After the review, it was announced that in the future, transgender prisoners would be initially accommodated according to their sex at birth while an assessment was carried out into whether it was more appropriate to house them in a men's or women's prison.

Bryson appeared in court in July 2019 under the name Adam Graham, and was charged that year.

Then, Bryson began the process of gender transition into a transgender woman in 2020, and assumed the name of Isla Annie Bryson in court that year.

In May 2021, Bryson's legal name was changed on the birth certificate to Annie Bryson, but her legal gender remained male.

In the 2023 trial, Bryson spoke about knowing of being transgender since the age of four, then choosing at age 29 to undergo a gender transition.

Bryson's mother said in 2023 that Bryson "never expressed any wish to me [of wanting] to be a girl, dressed in any other way or ever asked to be called by any other name than Adam growing up."

Bryson's estranged wife said in 2023 that there was no indication during their relationship that Bryson wanted to become a woman, and further accused Bryson of stabbing her and trying to rape her.

Bryson's estranged wife also said in 2023 that she had been trying to end the marriage with Bryson for seven years, but was unable to locate Bryson.

As of February 2023, Bryson was undergoing hormonal treatment, and had yet to undergo gender-affirming surgery.

In 2021, while awaiting trial, Bryson participated for three months in a beauty course at Ayrshire College's Kilwinning campus, with Ayrshire College later stating that it "had no prior knowledge of this individual being charged with any offences."

Bryson went under the name Annie with her coursemates.

Almost all of Bryson's coursemates were female and much younger, with some as young as 16.

One coursemate said that she partnered Bryson for coursework, where Bryson "wasn't comfortable with taking things off" and "did a lot of practising" on her, including applying fake tan and spray tan on her.

This coursemate spoke of Bryson "getting too close for comfort" and making "sly comments" after getting "jealous that I was working with other people", leading to her reporting Bryson regarding "bullying".

This coursemate further said that Bryson would accuse coursemates of being transphobic if "we said anything she didn't like".

This coursemate said that Bryson was asked to leave the course after several coursemates objected to Bryson's behaviour.

When this coursemate learned of Bryson's 2023 conviction, she felt "violated" and "so sick" regarding Bryson having practiced on her.

A second coursemate said that she did not attend the course for three weeks after Bryson complained that coursemates were "all discriminating against her and were homophobic", that Bryson was "very forceful and intimidating", with Bryson's "words and name-calling" bringing two course lecturers to tears.

This coursemate said regarding the course's spray tanning exercise that "it's so scary to think [Bryson] was watching me with no clothes on. Someone should have told a class full of young women what was going on."

This course mate spoke of her belief that Bryson was asked to leave the course due to allegations Bryson made against coursemates.

A third coursemate also recounted that the course's students "had next to nothing on" when they "all did the one-day spray tanning course" with Bryson; with coursemates having "all accepted [Bryson] for who she wanted to be"; and spoke of "utter shock" when learning of Bryson's conviction.

Susan Smith from the campaign group For Women Scotland expressed concern about how Bryson's beauty course classmates were unaware of the charges against Bryson since Bryson went by a different name in the course compared to the name Bryson had been charged under.

The lawyer Thomas Ross said that as the law stands a person accused of a crime does not have to disclose that information, something he described as a "catch-22 situation" for the institution, because they either face criticism for putting other students at risk by allowing the person to attend, or are open to a legal challenge from the accused for excluding them.

Bryson's six-day trial was held in January 2023 at the High Court of Justiciary in Glasgow.

The case was prosecuted by Advocate depute John Keenan and defended by Edward Targowski, while Lord Scott sat as presiding judge.

The prosecution described how Bryson had "preyed on two vulnerable female partners" after meeting them online.

Bryson denied raping the two women, arguing the sex between them had been consensual, and claimed to be "in no way a predatory male".

The defence also argued that Bryson's status as a person undergoing the transitioning process also made her vulnerable.