Isla Bryson, a transgender woman found guilty of raping two women before transitioning, will not be imprisoned in Scotland’s all-female Cornton Vale prison, Nicola Sturgeon has told the Scottish parliament.
The first minister confirmed Bryson would not be incarcerated in the women’s prison “either short-term or long-term”, after a report saying the offender had been transferred there on Tuesday prior to sentencing prompted outrage across the political and campaigning spectrum.
Bryson is expected to be moved to a male prison later on Thursday.
Pressed repeatedly on the matter at first minister’s questions on Thursday by the Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, Sturgeon said she agreed it was not possible to have a rapist incarcerated in a female prison.
Emphasising this was an operational matter for the Scottish Prison Service, she added: “The Scottish Prison Service is in the process of giving effect to the decision it has taken not to incarcerate this prisoner in Cornton Vale.”
It later emerged that Sturgeon had made a rare intervention during a meeting involving Keith Brown, the justice secretary, which took place shortly before she announced at Holyrood that Bryson was being moved from Cornton Vale.
Opponents of the Scottish government’s gender recognition changes, which the UK government has blocked from going for royal assent because of “safety issues for women and children”, said the case vindicated their concerns about a lack of safeguards in the bill.
“But Sturgeon also underlined it was important during such exchanges “that we do not even inadvertently suggest that somehow trans women pose an inherent threat to women””
Oh God no!
Goodness, what ever next? A vicious, inadvertent misgendering?
The convicted rapists – Adam Graham – has achieved more to derail the unhinged demands of the gender lobby to house violent men in women’s prisons than years of dignified Scottish Women’s protests ever could.