A sex-based rights campaigner says she hopes outrage over the remanding of a transgender rapist into a female prison is a “turning point” in the UK.
Graham—who began identifying as a female while awaiting trial for the rapes of two women—was initially remanded into Scotland’s only women’s prison following his conviction on January.
The 31-year-old was found guilty of the two separate sex attacks—one in Clydebank in 2016 and the other in Drumchapel, Glasgow, in 2019.
Graham—who now uses the name “Isla Bryson”—was immediately remanded into custody while awaiting sentencing.
The case sparked uproar when it was revealed Graham had been transferred from court to the all-female Cornton Vale jail, before being moved to the male estate.
Following the controversy, Scottish Justice Secretary Keith Brown ordered an urgent review of the case.
Vulnerable Female Prisoners
Coleman said: “My hope is that this moment will be seized upon to really find justice for women in prison, and to enable them to have the single sex spaces that they not only deserve as women, but they absolutely require.“We know that women in prison are some of the most vulnerable in society.
“There was a recent study which showed that, I think it was 80 percent of female offenders in prison in Scotland, had a history of significant head injury, which I find absolutely shocking.”
Coleman said the injuries in around two thirds of those inmates had been “caused by domestic violence.”
“The pattern of offending that women typically have, obviously not all women, is that it’s bound up with their relationships with men, and it’s bound up with the offending that those men have also committed,” she said.
“And now suddenly, you’re you’re putting a violent male offender—or any male offender—into the prison with them and saying, ‘Hi, this is a woman, this is Isla, you must call her she.’
“I mean, it’s horrific.”
Catastrophic Impact
The campaigner also touched on other cases of violent male prisoners—who have begun identifying as women—being moved to female prison estates in the UK.“From my own conversations with prisoners, with families, and with former and current officers, I know of more cases, but I can’t go into too many details,” she said.
“But if we’re looking at north of the border, we believe that there are five men who claim to be women currently held in women’s prisons. Four of those are serving very lengthy sentences for murder. One we don’t know what the offence category is.
“In the male estate, we believe that there are around 12 who are applying and attempting to get into the female state. And those include paedophiles are the sex offenders of violent criminals.”
South of the border, Coleman said, there are between 14 and 16 transgender inmates being held in the female estate.
“Those include men with intact male genitalia,” she added. “Men convicted of murder, men convicted of manslaughter, multiple serious child sex offences, rape, it’s, you know, serious, violent offenders.
“And those numbers may sound small; we’ve got five in Scotland, where the female prison population is around 350 or so.
“And south of the border in England and Wales, the female prison population, about 3,600-ish.
“So you'd say OK, well, those are quite small numbers.
“But the impact of even just one male prisoner can be absolutely catastrophic throughout a prison.”
Identifies as an Infant
The case of Adam Graham/Isla Bryson led to revelations on how other violent male inmates had been moved to Scotland’s only female prison after they began identifying as women.According to The Times of London, they are said to include Sophie Eastwood, formerly known as Daniel Eastwood, who strangled his cellmate at a young offenders’ institution in Dumfries in 2004.
Eastwood’s sentence was later increased for an attack on a prison guard before deciding in 2018 to self-identify as a woman.
The killer is now said to identify as an infant and wants all meals “blended like baby food,” the newspaper reported.
Bryson first appeared in court as Adam Graham in 2019 and was later named in court papers the following year—around the time of the decision to transition—as Isla Annie Bryson, formerly known as Adam Graham.
Sentencing the 31-year-old at Edinburgh’s High Court, Lord Scott said, “You are not at the stage of accepting what you did or acknowledging the serious harm you inflicted on two women.”
He said the rapist was at “a high risk of re-offending,” adding, “There will need to be a high level of supervision.”
Pressure
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon came under huge pressure from campaigners, MPs, and Downing Street after they expressed concerns that the transgender rapist was set to be sent to a female jail to await sentencing.The row further escalated after it was reported that another transgender criminal’s request to move to a female jail had been rubber-stamped.
Andrew Burns, who now uses the name “Tiffany Scott,” reportedly requested a transfer to a women’s prison.
The Daily Record reported in January that this request had been approved despite Burns having a history of violence and serving an order for lifelong restriction, meaning the prisoner will only be released when no longer considered an “unmanageable risk to public safety.”
The opposition Scottish Conservatives said Burns had attacked female staff while in a men’s prison and it is “absolutely appalling” that “such a violent and dangerous criminal is set to be transferred to a women’s prison.”
Following the backlash, Scotland’s Justice Secretary Keith Brown announced an “urgent review” of the management of transgender inmates.
He said that no transgender prisoner with a history of violence against women will be placed in the women’s prison estate until the review is completed.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab announced in October that trans women who have male genitalia or have committed sexual offences will not be held in women’s prisons.
On Sunday he confirmed that the measures will come into force on Feb. 27.
He also said that he has updated the policy to include transgender women convicted of violent offences as part of the ban.
