Double rapist Isla Bryson has launched a vicious verbal attack on JK Rowling over transgender rights.
The sex offender branded the Harry Potter author “pathetic” and backed under-fire Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre for employing a trans-
identifying man as CEO.
In letters to the Sunday Mail, Bryson, a biological male who transitioned after being accused of rape, rants that Rowling is “narrow minded”.
The 32-year-old, born Adam Graham, said: “Why should a trans woman be treated as a man in prison when we are women? Fact. No matter what anyone else says these people are just narrow minded who don’t even like themselves.
“People like JK Rowling are sad and pathetic. I do feel sorry for JK Rowling, her books are crap and her movies are too.”
The millionaire writer and women’s rights campaigner has fought to protect single sex spaces in jails and rape centres.
Rowling has held a longstanding interest in women’s rights and has been a vocal critic in the worldwide debate against claims that sex is not defined by biology and that each person has the right to choose their gender.
The Harry Potter creator, 59, who lives in Edinburgh, has also been a fiercely outspoken against the Scottish Government’s gender reform plans, arguing the proposals would have infringed on women’s safety.
In April, Rowling was cleared of breaching hate crime laws, which came into force on April 1, after the author described several transgender women - including transgender campaigners and convicted sex offenders -including Bryson - as men in social media posts.
Writing on social media platform X in April, Rowling wrote: “Lovely Scottish lass and convicted double rapist Isla Bryson found her true authentic female self shortly before she was due to be sentenced. Misgendering is hate, so respect Isla’s pronouns, please.”
Bryson sparked political uproar when held in Cornton Vale women’s jail before moving to all-male HMP Edinburgh.
The case fuelled outrage over the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill and recording of sex and gender. It also contributed to the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon last year.
The former first minister was unable to say if Bryson was a man or a woman.
The rapist, now at Glenochil jail, weighed in on the Mridul Wadhwa debate – the trans woman who ran Edinburgh’s sexual violence support service.
Wadhwa quit Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre in September after a Rape Crisis Scotland report found she “did not understand the limits of her authority” and rape survivors were not being prioritised and single sex services not protected.
Wadhwa said those wanting single sex care were bigoted.
Bryson said: “She had every right to work there. She is a woman.”
Bryson was jailed for eight years for raping two women. Prison guidance then said trans criminals should be sent to the jail that matched their self-identified gender prior to conviction.
It emerged Police Scotland considered logging Bryson as female on the sex offenders’ register.
Bryson said: “They should log me as a woman, I am a woman with boobs.”
The rapist said moving from Cornton Vale had let him meet men.
Last July we told of his relationship with Jason King, 46, jailed for child sex abuse and drug offences.
Bryson said: “I was annoyed when they removed me but I would never have met Jason King, I still love and miss him.”
Bryson was convicted in January 2023 of raping two woman – one in Clydebank in 2016 and another in Drumchapel in 2019, while known as Graham.
On bail Bryson began to identify as a woman. In February last year, Bryson was jailed for eight years, with a further three years on licence.
JK Rowling was asked to comment.
