London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Nicola Sturgeon: Rapist Isla Bryson 'almost certainly' faking trans status

Nicola Sturgeon: Rapist Isla Bryson 'almost certainly' faking trans status

A double rapist who was sent to a women's prison last week is "almost certainly" faking being trans, Nicola Sturgeon has suggested.

Isla Bryson was convicted of attacking two women while known as a man called Adam Graham.

One of the victims later said she was sure Bryson was pretending to be trans to "make life easier".

Bryson was moved from Cornton Vale to the male prison estate after a public outcry.

A "pause" was subsequently placed on the transfer to women's jails of trans inmates with convictions for violence after it was reported that another transgender woman, Tiffany Scott - who was convicted of stalking a 13-year-old girl before her transition and has a history of violence - was due to be moved to a female prison.

The Bryson case was raised at First Minister's Questions by Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross on Thursday.

Mr Ross said: "I believe a double rapist, anyone who rapes a woman, is a man. They cannot be considered anything else.

"When a man rapes two women, we don't think that he should be considered a woman just because he says so. We should call out criminals like this who are abusing the system.

"Adam Graham, who wants to be know as Isla Bryson, raped two women. He is an abusive man seeking to exploit loopholes in the government's current policy."

Mr Ross asked the first minister: "Is this double rapist a woman?"

Ms Sturgeon initially said she did not have enough information to say whether Bryson's claim to be a woman was valid or not.

She added: "I don't think Douglas Ross and I are disagreeing here, because what I think is relevant in this case is not whether the individual is a man or claims to be a woman or is trans.

What is relevant is that the individual is a rapist. That is how the individual should be described, and it is that that should be the main consideration in deciding how the individual is dealt with.

"That is why, of course, the individual is in a male prison, not in the female prison, these are the issues that matter."

Mr Ross went on to read a quote from one of Bryson's victims, who said: "I don't believe he is truly transgender. I feel as if he has made a mockery out of them using it. As far as I'm concerned, that was to make things easier for himself. I'm sure he is faking it."

Bryson was convicted of rapes while known as Adam Graham

The first minister responded: "My feeling is that is almost certainly the case, which is why the key factor in this case is not the individual's claim to be a woman.

"The key and in fact only important factor in this is that the individual is convicted of rape - the individual is a rapist - and that is the factor that should be the deciding one in decisions about how that prisoner is now treated."

Ms Sturgeon went on to say it was "really important" to "look seriously" at the issues thrown up by the Bryson case, adding: "But that in doing so, we bear in mind two things.

"Firstly, as I've said, that we do not further stigmatise trans people generally - I think that is important - but secondly that we don't cause undue concern amongst the public."

Ms Sturgeon added that there were exemptions under the current UK equality law that "even if it wanted to this parliament couldn't change" that enabled trans women to be excluded from some single sex spaces.

When asked about the Bryson case on Monday, Justice Secretary Keith Brown told BBC Scotland's The Nine: "We have to accept people identify - in this case - as women. I think that is commonly accepted and that's the starting approach we take."

But Mr Brown stressed that this did not mean they would automatically have the right to go to a female prison, with a "rigorous" risk assessment being carried out first.

However, when asked earlier in the week why the gender claims of prisoners were accepted at face value, Ms Sturgeon said: "That is the case for trans people but if you take the two cases that have been in the media, for my point of view it's not so important what gender they are, it's the crimes that they have committed."

Bryson was found guilty last month of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 before she changed gender after being arrested.

While awaiting trail, she enrolled on a beauty course Ayrshire College, where she was known as Annie, and remained there for three months before being asked to leave.

Her classmates were almost exclusively female and much younger than Bryson, and were not aware of the rape allegations.

One former classmate told BBC Scotland last week that she felt "violated" after learning of the crimes Bryson had committed.

Scottish government legislation aimed at allowing people to self-identify their legal sex has been blocked by the UK government over its potential impact on equalities laws.

The UK government said during a Westminster debate on Thursday that it was up to the Scottish government to bring forward a new Gender Recognition Reform bill that addresses the legal issues which caused the bill to be blocked.

Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said the decision to block the legislation using what is known as a Section 35 order was used very carefully and reluctantly in order to preserve the balance of powers between Scotland and England.

SNP MP Patrick Grady said the UK government should publish its own amendments to the Bill to make it acceptable and claimed the Conservatives were undermining the Scottish Parliament.

And backbench Conservative MP said he believed the legal arguments used by the government for halting the legislation were "shaky".


The first minister is challenged to say whether she believes a double rapist is a woman

Justice Secretary Keith Brown told The Nine it had been accepted that trans prisoners Isla Bryson and Tiffany Scott were women


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×