The double rapist who was sent to Cornton Vale women’s prison and has been at the centre of a row over gender identity enrolled on a beauty course at a college after being charged with the sex attacks.
STV News has learnt that Isla Bryson, who was this week convicted of raping two women, attended classes at Ayrshire College’s Kilwinning Campus in 2021, while awaiting trial.
Bryson, previously known as Adam Graham, was on Tuesday found guilty of raping one woman in Clydebank in 2016 and another in Drumchapel, Glasgow, in 2019, following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Susan Smith from the campaign group For Women Scotland said: “He was charged under his original name, Adam Graham, and presumably they knew him by his new name, so they (fellow students) probably wouldn’t have been able to find out anything about this person.
“It’s absolutely terrifying that people can hide their identities and gain access to young women in this way.”
The course involved Bryson enrolled on featured a mix of classroom work and practical elements such as students doing each other’s make-up.
The other students were almost exclusively female and much younger than Bryson, who is now 31.
A statement from Ayrshire College said: “We can confirm the individual was enrolled as a student at Ayrshire College for a three-month period in 2021 and is no longer a student with the College.
“Ayrshire College had no prior knowledge of this individual being charged with any offences.”
Bryson has now been moved to a male prison and will return to court for sentencing next month.
The initial decision to place prisoners in facilities rests with the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS), but in this case Bryson was supposed to be taken to HMP Barlinnie in Glasgow, according to the courts.
An SCTS spokesman said: “It is normal practice for the warrant issued by the court to select the local prison for a prisoner to be remanded in, however the Scottish Prison Service are not bound by this. In this case, the warrant stated HMP Barlinnie.”
Speaking to journalists later, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the Government had given no “formal direction” to the prison service on where Bryson should be imprisoned.
She added: “In all cases where a risk assessment is being done, the prison service will not necessarily wait until it is concluded if there are reasons for a different decision on where a prisoner is accommodated.
“This individual case is not about whether they are trans or not, in this individual case this is a person who’s been convicted of rape, so this individual is a rapist and a sex offender and that is what’s important.”
In a briefing for the media after First Minister’s Questions, a spokesman for Sturgeon said her view on Bryson had been relayed to the prison service through officials, but it would be wrong to say her opinion had changed the decision to bar the prisoner from Cornton Vale.
The spokesman would not say if it is now Scottish Government policy to bar all rapists from female prisons.
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