Scotland will move a transgender woman convicted of rape from a women’s prison after concerns were raised about the safety of other inmates, Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Thursday, Reuters and the BBC reported.

Isla Bryson was convicted this week of raping two women in 2016 and 2019 while she was a man named Adam Graham, and was initially jailed at Cornton Vale Women’s Prison in central Scotland.

Bryson decided to change his gender from male to female while waiting for the trial to begin. She is due to be sentenced next week after pleading guilty to rape on Tuesday.

Bryson is believed to be the first transgender woman in Scotland to be convicted of raping women.

But Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon has now announced she will be transferred from the women’s prison and will not serve her sentence at Cornton Vale.

“Given the well-founded public and parliamentary concern about this case, I can confirm once and for all that this prisoner will not be held at Cornton Vale Women’s Prison. I hope this will allay the public’s concerns,” Sturgeon told parliament in Edinburgh on Thursday.

The case of a transgender woman has put the Scottish government in a delicate situation

The case has caused some embarrassment for Nicola Sturgeon’s government, as Bryson was found guilty of rape just weeks after the Scottish Parliament, where the prime minister’s party has a comfortable majority, passed legislation making it easier to change gender on documents.

However, the British government has announced it will block the bill, the first time it has vetoed a Scottish law.

The London government’s secretary of state for Scotland, Alistair Jack, said he was citing section 35 of the Scotland Act, a 1998 law that allows the UK executive to prevent a bill from coming into force if it would have an adverse effect on an issue. in which the national government retains ultimate jurisdiction.

“We have not taken this decision lightly,” Jack said in a press release, adding that the welfare law “will have a significant impact” on equality issues in the UK.

The bill, passed in December, makes Scotland the first UK country to support a self-identification process for gender reassignment, including removing the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria and lowering the minimum age from 18 to 16.