IT is “sickening” that a trans-gender man convicted of rape in Scotland is regarded by some as a woman, a rights campaigner has said.

For Women Scotland co-director Susan Smith commented on Nicola Sturgeon’s statement confirming that transgender rapist Isla Bryson will not go to a women’s prison.

Ms Smith told GB News: “The testimony that victims gave was that he was using his superior physical strength, which again, is something where we keep being told ‘no, there’s no difference.’

“But obviously, he used these advantages as a man to rape to women and for people to be dancing around and talking about this person as though they’re a woman is is really sickening.

She added: “It’s still worrying because this ridiculous policy is still in place.

“The Scottish Prison Service policy was written really by lobbyists and it is based on self ID and there is a bit of a presumption there that somebody’s declared or preferred gender is the thing that prison officers should be looking at.

“It causes problems, not only when male prisoners are moved into the women’s estate, and there are male prisoners in the women’s estate, including at least two murderers.

“It also causes problems when those male prisoners have been held in the men’s estate. Some of the practices may have changed, but the policy actually said that if a male prisoner had self-declared themselves to be a woman, then they could demand that intimate searches were carried out by female prison officers and that caused trouble in several cases.”

She told Patrick Christys: “We have bought up time and again, this idea of if you are a traumatised victim, not only do you have the indignity and the fear of going into a court and the questions you might be asked, but you’re listening to the court describing the person who raped you as a woman and talking about her penis.

“And to cap it all off, in this case, which was absolutely abhorrent, the Defence tried to spin this line that this was another vulnerable woman, because and solely because he claimed he was transitioning.

“They were using this idea of transgender status, which is one that is pushed constantly by sturgeon and others, that trans people are vulnerable and marginalised.

“They were picking up on that and saying, well, because this is a trans person, automatically, therefore he is vulnerable and marginalised and therefore couldn’t have committed this crime.

“And, of course, Sturgeon stood up in Parliament and said, nobody would do this, this would never happen. Well, this has happened.

“They either need to decide is this a violent predatory man who exploited a loophole within a self ID system, which is what they have in the prison service, or this is a genuine, vulnerable trans person, but they can’t have it both ways.”

Asked if she felt like she was in the minority, she said: “I’m certainly not in Scotland. The latest polls show that an overwhelming number of people are against this bill and an overwhelming number of people who would support the SNP or against this bill.

“It’s been really interesting, because it’s probably the first time that the UK Government have used section 35.

“The reaction has been interesting from all quarters because he would naturally expect some of the people who are SNP supporters to think this was Westminster interference, but in fact the overwhelming response has been thank goodness that this has been blocked because it’s so awful.”