A transgender double rapist whose detention in a women’s prison helped end Nicola Sturgeon’s political career has been jailed for eight years.

Isla Bryson, who committed the attacks while still known as Adam Graham, was sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on Tuesday morning.

The 31-year-old, who met the two victims online, preyed on vulnerable women, a trial last month heard. 

After being convicted, Bryson was taken to Cornton Vale women’s jail, under a Scottish Prison Service policy that followed the same principle of gender self-ID as controversial transgender laws Ms Sturgeon pushed through Holyrood.

The decision caused a huge public backlash, which led to Bryson being transferred to a male jail in Edinburgh and prison bosses ditching a policy which they had followed since 2014.

While Ms Sturgeon denied that “short-term pressures” were behind her shock decision to announce her resignation earlier this month, she had repeatedly appeared uncomfortable when facing questions over Bryson.

She repeatedly refused to say whether she believed the rapist to be a man or a woman, despite male genitalia being required under Scottish law to commit the offence.

Bryson attacked two women in Clydebank and Glasgow in 2016 and 2019. The judge said Bryson posed a high risk of reoffending and would be supervised for three years after release.

Ms Sturgeon’s plan to allow all Scots aged 16 or over to change their legal sex by signing a declaration has been blocked by the UK Government.

Two of the three candidates running to replace her as SNP leader and First Minister, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan, have said they will not proceed with a legal challenge aimed at overturning the veto.

A third, Humza Yousaf, seen as the Sturgeon continuity candidate, has said that he will proceed with a legal challenge.