Mother heard daughter say ‘don’t do that, stop’, transgender rape trial told

The woman was giving evidence against transgender woman Isla Bryson, who is accused of raping two women.

Transgender woman Isla Bryson is on trial accused of rape at the High Court in Glasgow (John Linton/PA)

A mother heard her daughter saying, “no, don’t do that, stop” from behind her bedroom door on the night she was allegedly raped by a man who now identifies as a transgender woman.

Isla Bryson, 31, from Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, is on trial at the High Court in Glasgow accused of raping two women, one in Clydebank in 2016 and one in Drumchapel, Glasgow, in 2019.

The court heard in agreed evidence that Bryson now identifies as a transgender woman and was previously known by the “dead name” Adam Graham.

The mother of the woman allegedly raped in Clydebank told the court that the accused was in a relationship with her daughter, who lived with her, and regularly stayed over.

When I was going to the toilet I heard her saying - no, don't, don't do that

Mother of alleged victim

She told the court that he was staying over on the night of the alleged incident in 2016, and said that she heard her daughter speaking when she passed her bedroom after waking to go to the toilet.

The mother said: “When I was going to the toilet I heard her saying ‘no, don’t, don’t do that’, but I just put it down to being embarrassed. I went away to the living room.”

Asked by the prosecutor to clarify what she heard her daughter say, she said: “No, don’t do that, stop.”

Advocate depute John Keenan asked: “Is that something you heard her say once or did you hear it more?”

She replied: “She said it a couple of times.”

Asked whether she did anything she said: “No, I was annoyed, I just went in the living room.”

Bryson is also accused of telling the alleged victim in 2016 to wash the sheets and not tell anyone what happened, and it is claimed she said she would threaten the woman’s family if she did so, in an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.

She denies the charges and has lodged special defences claiming the sex was consensual.

She also denies a further charge of punching the second alleged victim.

The trial, before Judge Lord Scott, continues.