The transgender double rapist who was originally sent to an all-female jail had enrolled in a beauty course while awaiting trial.
Isla Bryson, previously known as Adam Graham, attended Ayrshire College’s Kilwinning Campus in 2021, the college confirmed to MailOnline today.
Bryson began taking the beauty course, which reportedly involved both classroom work and practical applications, after having been charged for sex attacks.
She was convicted this week of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.
Bryson, 31, was moved to a male prison today after outrage from campaigners, politicians and a United Nations human rights expert. She will return to court for sentencing next month.
Isla Bryson (pictured on Monday) attended Ayrshire College’s Kilwinning Campus in 2021 while awaiting trial for rape
Bryson began taking a beauty course at Ayrshire College (pictured), which reportedly involved both classroom work and practical applications, after having been charged for sex attacks
Bryson was enrolled at the college for a three-month period in 2021 and is no longer enrolled, Ayrshire College spokesperson told MailOnline today.
The spokesperson added: ‘Ayrshire College had no prior knowledge of this individual being charged with any offences.
‘We will not be making any further comment on this matter.’
Bryson’s course was almost exclusively comprised of female students, most of whom were ‘much younger’ than the convicted rapist, reports indicate.
Susan Smith, of the campaign group For Women Scotland, suspects that Bryson’s classmates were unaware of her crimes because she was charged under her ‘original name.’
‘Presumably they knew him by his new name, so they probably wouldn’t have been able to find out anything about this person,’ Ms Smith told STV News today, adding that it is ‘absolutely terrifying that people can hide their identities and gain access to young women in this way.’
Bryson, previously known as Adam Graham (pictured), was convicted this week of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow
Bryson, 31, was moved to a male prison today after outrage from campaigners, politicians and a United Nations human rights expert. She will return to court for sentencing next month. Pictured: A prison van believed to be transporting Isla Bryson to a men’s prison is seen leaving Cornton Vale women’s prison in Stirling at 2.30pm this afternoon
The vehicle is understood to have reached the new facility at around 5.20pm
News of Bryson’s enrolment at Ayrshire College comes just hours after she was moved out of Scotland’s only all-women’s prison to a male jail within hours of a humiliating U-turn by Nicola Sturgeon.
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Ms Sturgeon told First Minister’s Questions: ‘I don’t think it’s possible to have a rapist within a women’s prison’.
A vehicle believed to be transporting Bryson was pictured leaving Cornton Vale jail in Stirling at around 2.30pm and it arrived at a replacement facility at 5.20pm.
The SNP leader revealed the U-turn just 24 hours after her own justice secretary Keith Brown backed the Scottish Prison Service’s decision to put the transgender double rapist with female inmates in Cornton Vale.
The move comes after campaigners, politicians and a United Nations human rights expert all raised concerns over Bryson being housed in a women’s prison.
MPs and MSPs warned that female inmates could be at risk and the move sent a signal that male sex offenders could ‘game the system’.
Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross said today: ‘It should not have taken public disgust and a slew of negative headlines about a double rapist being sent to a women’s prison for Nicola Sturgeon to realise this was completely unacceptable and wrong.’
Bryson had only started to transition after appearing in court on the rape charges.
Her estranged wife Shonna Graham, 31, previously told MailOnline her former partner’s transition was a ‘sham for attention’ and he was ‘bull******** the authorities’ to avoid a male prison.
Transgender rapist Isla Bryson was sent to a women’s prison despite carrying out the crimes as a man and transitioning after being charge
Nryson’s estranged wife Shonna Graham, 31, previously told MailOnline her former partner’s transition was a ‘sham for attention’ and he was ‘bull******** the authorities’ to avoid a male prison. Pictured: Shonna Graham and Isla Bryson – then Adam Graham – on their wedding day
Nicola Sturgeon (pictured today) confirmed that Isla Bryson will not remain in a women’s prison while speaking to the Scottish Parliament today
Bryson’s case comes weeks after the Scottish parliament passed a bill to make it easier for people to change their legal gender, drawing criticism from some women’s rights campaigners who argue that predatory men could use it to access single-sex spaces such as bathrooms.
The controversial bill, passed in December, made Scotland the first nation of the UK to back a self-identification process for changing gender, including removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and lowering the minimum age to 16 from 18.
The bill has deepened a rift with the government of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in London, with the two already at loggerheads over whether Scotland can hold another independence referendum.
Scotland’s devolved parliament can make its own laws, but the UK can veto legislation if it deems it to interfere with matters within the national jurisdiction. Britain’s move to block the gender bill is the first time it has invoked that power.
Ms Sturgeon has called the UK’s blocking of the bill a ‘full-frontal attack’ on the Scottish Parliament.
