A biological male who was convicted of raping two women has complained about allegedly suffering transphobic abuse after being sent to a male prison.
Adam Graham, who began identifying as a female named Isla Bryson after being charged with raping two women, has sent letters to the British media complaining about alleged transphobia within His Majesty’s Prison Edinburgh, which he was sent to after initially being placed in a female prison.
Speaking to the Mail on Sunday for a fee of £1,000, the 31-year-old rapist said: “I’m not doing too good because of abuse from the staff members all because I am transgender and other prisoners too.
“This jail is full of transphobic people. The police are involved because of the abuse to do with my gender. People won’t stop being transphobic.”
The account was seemingly backed up by Police Scotland, which confirmed that a 24-year-old man has been charged with threatening and abusive behaviour after a hate crime report was filed in June.
The comments from the allegedly transgender prisoner, who was convicted of raping two women in 2016 and 2019, come amid continued debate surrounding the placement of transgender prisoners.
Following the initial controversy surrounding Graham’s placement in the Cornton Vale women’s prison, which was permitted under a gender self-identify law passed under former Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
The controversy around the case was credited with being a contributing factor towards the downfall of Sturgeon, who failed on multiple occasions whenasked to be able to say whether the convicted rapist was a man or a woman.
The Scottish self-id law was ultimately blocked by the UK government in Westminster and the Scottish Prison System (SPS) rewrote its guidance to require prisoners to be segregated by their biological sex, no matter if they identify otherwise.
Sturgeon’s successor, far-left Humza Yousaf has previously expressed doubt about whether Graham (Bryson) is actually a “true trans woman”. Yet, Yousaf has reportedly backed a legal challenge against Westminster to reinstate the policy of self-id, which would allow anyone over 16 — including rapists — to self-identify as the gender of their choosing without the need for medical evidence.