Female students were told to strip naked for spray tan sessions in college beauty class in front of transgender rapist
- Isla Bryson studied beauty at Ayrshire College’s Kilwinning Campus in 2021
- The hands-on course was comprised of mostly younger women, reports indicate
- Bryson enrolled at Ayrshire after being charged with rape and was awaiting trial
Two young female students today described being ogled by transgender double rapist Isla Bryson after being ordered to strip during a beauty class ‘full of young girls’.
Rachel Ferguson, 21, and Abi Nixon, 18, have said they feel ‘sick and violated’ because they got ‘practically naked’ for spray tan sessions in front of the sex attacker at Ayrshire College’s Kilwinning Campus in 2021.
Bryson, 31, who began identifying as a woman after being charged with sexual offences but still has a penis, was found guilty of raping two women at the High Court in Glasgow this week.
But horrifyingly it has emerged that the defendant, was able to enrol in a beauty course while awaiting trial, using the name Annie Bryson.
Students described Bryson as ‘overpowering’ and ‘disruptive’, saying classmates were repeatedly branded homophobic when questioning the abuser’s behaviour before Bryson was finally asked to leave the course.
Rachel Ferguson, 21, and Abi Nixon, 18, have said they feel ‘sick and violated’ because they got ‘practically naked’ for spray tan sessions in front of rapist Isla Bryson
Isla Bryson, 31, formerly known as Adam Graham, but only began identifying as a woman after being charged with rape
Now two former Ayrshire College students who trained to become beauticians alongside Bryson have demanded answers from college chiefs, who deny knowing about the rape charges, while women’s rights campaigners have called for better protection for students.
Inside notorious Scottish prison where trans double rapist is being held after move from women’s jail
Rachel Ferguson, 21, said: ‘It really scares me to look back and realise (Bryson) was watching me with no clothes on after being charged with this.
‘It makes me feel physically sick and violated. We should have known about these charges. It’s not right that we didn’t know.’
Bryson, then known as Adam Graham, first appeared in court more than three years ago. Victims in the case told jurors how they asked ‘muscular’ Graham to stop before he forced himself upon them.
Students at Ayrshire College’s Kilwinning Campus say they studied alongside Bryson, then known to them as Annie, in 2021.
Miss Ferguson, a nail technician from Dundonald, South Ayrshire, said she missed three weeks of classes because Bryson ‘kept coming at me’, adding that the way Bryson ‘spoke to the lecturers was disgusting’.
Ms Ferguson said her experience of being required to remove her clothes in front of Bryson had left her ‘sickened’.
Ms Ferguson continued: ‘Being a beauty course, you need to take your clothes off for some of it. We were doing spray tanning at one point and I was a model. You need to stand practically naked.
‘Looking back, with what we know now, it’s so scary. Someone should have told a class full of young women what was going on. Anything could have happened.’
Ms Ferguson said Bryson was later asked to leave the course, which she understood was due to the allegations Bryson was making about fellow students.
Another former student Abi Nixon, 18, from Ardrossan, told of her shock at learning of Bryson’s conviction this week.
Ms Nixon said: ‘We all did the one-day spray tanning course. We had next to nothing on and this was before ‘Annie’ had been removed from the course.
The criminal was moved to a male prison after outrage from campaigners, politicians and a United Nations human rights expert. Bryson 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 the rapist’s classmates did not know about the charges because they were filed under Bryson’s ‘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, 31, was moved to a male prison today after outrage from campaigners, politicians and a United Nations human rights expert. The rapist 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
Transgender double rapist Isla Bryson leaves women’s prison after 48 hours: CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
Transgender rapist Isla Bryson has today been moved out of Scotland’s only all-women’s prison to a male jail within hours of a humiliating U-turn by Nicola Sturgeon
News of Bryson’s enrolment at Ayrshire College comes just hours after the rapist 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.
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 : ‘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.
The rapist’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.
Transgender rapist Isla Bryson was sent to a women’s prison despite carrying out the crimes as a man and transitioning after being charge
Bryson’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.
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