Mick Hartley

A strange report from the Times:

A transgender woman has denied raping two women with her penis as she went on trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

With her penis? Do we really have to do this? I mean, it's odd enough to mention a penis at all – doesn't rape require a penis, by definition? But…her penis?

Isla Bryson, formerly known as Adam Graham, faces four charges that she carried out two sexual assaults four years apart.

He carried out two sexual assaults. Yes, sometimes pronouns do matter.

John Keenan KC, advocate depute, told the jury that Bryson, 31, of Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, identifies as a woman and is in the process of starting surgery to complete gender reassignment. He said that her “dead name” is Graham, explaining it means the name a trans person is given at birth but no longer wishes to use.

The first alleged assault is said to have happened on September 16, 2016, at a property in Clydebank when it is claimed Bryson penetrated a woman and “did thus rape her”. The charge further alleges Bryson pulled down the woman’s clothing, struggled with her, and restrained her.

The jury was also told that the accused, being conscious of her guilt, instructed the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, to “wash bedding” the day after the alleged rape.

It is further claimed Bryson instructed the woman “not to disclose to anyone the events” said to have taken place the previous day. It is alleged Bryson “threaten[ed] her family should she do so” and this was part of an attempt to “destroy evidence”, “avoid detection, arrest and prosecution” and “defeat the ends of justice”.

An alleged sex assault on another woman is said to have happened at a flat in Glasgow on June 27, 2019. It is alleged that after having engaged in consensual sexual activity, Bryson sexually assaulted her.

The indictment further alleges she bit the woman, lay on top of her, seized her by the body and restrained her. Bryson is said to have raped the woman “to her injury”. A fourth charge claims Bryson assaulted the woman on June 28, 2019, by punching her on the body.

Keenan said a letter from Dr Craig Napier, the accused’s GP, dated August 5 last year confirmed Bryson was “currently receiving the maximum recommended doses of spironolactone and finasteride” — a hormone prescription from Sandyford clinic, a specialist sexual health service in Glasgow.

The court was told the letter also confirmed Bryson was also offered an appointment from Sandyford within the next year with the intention of prescribing further hormone treatment.

The trial, expected to last five days, continues.

And if he's found guilty? Likely placed in a women's prison, with the crimes being recorded as yet more in the dramatically increasing count of women committing violent sex crimes.