The estranged wife of transgender sex attacker Isla Bryson has dismissed the double rapist’s eight-year prison sentence as “not nearly enough.”
Bryson was jailed in Edinburgh High Court on Tuesday for the rape of a woman in Clydebank in 2016 and a second victim in Drumchapel three years later – while still a man known as Adam Graham.
Shonna Graham, 31, says the ordeal of Bryson’s two victims was overshadowed by the inmate sex change controversy.
She told MailOnline: “He – and I will always call him a he – will be released from prison in four years, but his two victims will have to live with this for the rest of their lives.
“It’s an insult to them that their whole ordeal was barely discussed and it was all about him and what kind of prison he should go to.
Shonna Graham, 31, says the ordeal of Bryson’s two victims was overshadowed by the inmate’s gender reassignment controversy
Isla Bryson leaves Edinburgh High Court in a prison van after being sentenced to eight years in prison today
“They are the ones suffering and all he has done is strike a blow to try and get a softer sentence.
“I’m glad they finally made sense and put him in a man’s prison and I hope he has a hard time there – he deserves it after what he’s done.”
The double rapist will serve his sentence at HMP Edinburgh, also known as Saughton Prison, which was built in 1920 and holds around 900 prisoners a day.
Shonna said she thought 15 years would have been a more appropriate sentence for the double rapist, but she welcomed Lord Scott’s words when he told Bryson, “You see yourself as the victim in this case.” You are not.’
But she added: “The judge was on the right track, but in my opinion he didn’t follow through because eight years – because he gets out in half the time – doesn’t reflect the seriousness of his crimes.
‘Then the traumas of the victims come back much too quickly and they don’t get a chance to heal.’
Bryson, 31, was sentenced to eight years in prison, with an additional three years’ probation.
Out-of-court photos on Tuesday show the double rapist – who changed gender while waiting to stand trial – hiding behind a blonde bob and pink hooded jumper in a prison van after Lord Scott told him: ‘It’s It’s clear that you pose a particularly high risk to any woman you enter into a relationship with.’
Bryson, who committed the two rapes when he was a man known as Adam Graham, met the victims online and prosecutors said the criminal was “preying” on vulnerable women.
The case caused a stir after Bryson was initially placed in a female-only prison. In the wake of this outcry, the criminal was moved to the man’s estate.
Scottish Justice Minister Keith Brown ordered an urgent review of the case and the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) halted the transfer of all transgender prisoners with a history of violence against women to the female estate.
Shonna said she thought 15 years would have been a more appropriate sentence for the double rapist, but she welcomed Lord Scott’s words
It came just weeks after the devolved Scottish Parliament passed a bill to make it easier for people to change legal gender, drawing criticism from women’s rights campaigners who claim predatory men could use it to access spaces for the same sex, such as bathrooms.
The Westminster government has since said it will block the change because it would affect equality issues in the rest of the country.
The issue also came to a head shortly before Nicola Sturgeon said she would step down as Scottish First Minister after nearly a decade in power, saying she had become too divided.
At today’s sentencing, Lord Scott noted that Bryson continues to “strongly deny” the crimes and claims that the victims “conspired” to press charges.
The court heard the rapist, who appeared in court wearing a blonde wig, black leggings and a fluorescent pink jacket, is still pursuing a full gender reassignment and is receiving “the maximum recommended doses of hormone prescription” from the Sandyford Sexual Health Clinic in Glasgow.
Defense attorney Edward Targowski KC said this, coupled with “troubled early years,” left Bryson vulnerable.
Bryson, 31, was convicted last month of raping two women, who were pictured out of court before an earlier hearing
Undated file photo issued by Police Scotland of Isla Bryson formerly known as Adam Graham
He told the court that the criminal’s transition after both rapes was not “an afterthought, cynically designed to reduce the sentence,” in contrast to what he described as “ill-informed and ill-judged comments” made outside of court.
But Lord Scott said the seriousness of the crimes “much outweigh” Bryson’s extenuating circumstances.
He acknowledged that Bryson is considered “vulnerable in some ways” due to adverse childhood experiences, but said, “You see yourself as the victim in this situation. You are not.
“Your vulnerability is no excuse at all for what you did to these two women.
“You raped two women, both of whom could be considered vulnerable.”
