The mother of Scottish transgender rapist Isla Bryson has called on Nicola Sturgeon to issue a public apology following the Supreme Court‘s landmark ruling that the definition of a woman is based purely on biological sex.

Janet Bryson, who says she is in favour of the new ruling, has backed calls for the former First Minister to apologise for her controversial gender self-ID policy.

It comes following the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling on Wednesday that ‘biological sex’ is the decisive factor in determining a person’s rights under UK equality law, rather than gender choices or certificates. 

The contentious decision followed a legal challenge brought by Scottish campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) over a 2018 Holyrood Law passed under Ms Sturgeon.

It now means that transgender women are no longer considered women in the eyes of the law. 

Isla, 32, was jailed in 2023 for eight years for the rape of two women in Clydebank and Glasgow in 2016 and 2019, while still a man known as Adam Graham. 

Now, Janet, who still refers to her child as ‘my son’, has said she believes it is ‘time Ms Sturgeon apologised’ for her role in spearheading the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill in December 2022.

Speaking to the Sunday Mail, the 65-year-old mother said she was ‘pleased with the ruling’, believing that it ‘ends years of confusion over these new gender laws’ and has ensured that the ‘rights of biological women are clear and protected’. 

She added: ‘That has now been made clear but it should never have been questioned in the first place. But I think it is now time Ms Sturgeon apologised.

‘You can say you are a woman all you want but I believe that is different to being biologically born a woman. With the case of my son, he was born a man. A piece of paper does not change that. 

‘She (Sturgeon) owes not just me but the women of Scotland an apology.’ 

Isla’s case caused public outcry, including from Harry Potter author JK Rowling, after she was initially sent to an all-female Cornton Vale prison, outside Stirling. 

Less than 24 hours after her own justice secretary Keith Brown backed the Scottish Prison Service’s decision, the double rapist was transferred to a male prison in a U-turn decision by Sturgeon. 

It also came amid a controversial row over Sturgeon’s plans for a gender self-ID law, which would have allowed anyone aged 16 or over to obtain a Gender Recognition Certificate by signing a declaration. 

Previously, Janet has refuted claims that her child had wanted to be a girl from the age of four, telling the Sunday Mail: ‘My son never expressed any wish that he wanted to be a girl, dressed in any other way or ever asked to be called by any other name than Adam growing up.

‘Never once, at the age of four or at any other age.

‘I believe you have to be born female to be female. No wigs, dresses or amount of make-up makes you female.’

Janet has also been adamant that her child’s eight-year sentence was not enough and should have been extended to at least 20 years.

Meanwhile, Shonna Graham, 31, who married Isla, then Adam Graham, prior to the court case, has previously told MailOnline how she believes that the sex attacker is ‘bullsh*****g the authorities’.

She added: ‘His gender transition is a sham for attention and an easier life in prison. When I saw the photos of him dressed as a woman with a blonde wig and pink lycra leggings, I fell out of bed laughing.’

Janet’s new insistence that Sturgeon should issue a public apology comes as critics have dubbed the Scottish politician’s failure to respond to the landmark legal ruling as ‘insulting‘. 

The former first minister has been accused of being ‘missing in action’ as she remained silent, despite pushing the gender ideology that led to humiliation for SNP ministers in court.

The Scottish Tories said it was a ‘disgrace’, while the campaigners behind the historic legal decision said they doubted she had the ‘integrity or intelligence’ to admit her mistakes. 

FWS co-director Susan Smith said: ‘Frankly, we are not surprised that the woman who caused such turmoil has gone into hiding. We very much doubt that Sturgeon has the integrity or intelligence to own up to her appalling mistakes.

‘She made the lives of many of the most vulnerable women in Scotland intolerable: women in prison who remain incarcerated with violent men, women scared to access rape crisis centres, and women called bigots because they wanted female medics to provide intimate care.’

Meanwhile, First Minister John Swinney has also come under fire for failing to say whether he believed a trans woman was a woman when queried by the Mail on Sunday.  

Ahead of a Scottish Government statement on the ruling in the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, the First Minister refused to say if he believed that a trans woman was a woman, saying: ‘Well, the Supreme Court judgment has come out on that. So we’ve got the answer to that.’

Asked: ‘What did the Supreme Court judgment say about that?’, he responded: ‘You don’t need me to spell that out to you.’ 

Pushed further on why he might be concerned about saying trans women were not women in the wake of the ruling, he said: ‘I don’t have any concern about that, I am simply saying the Supreme Court judgement has been made.’

And asked again if he believed trans women were not women, Mr Swinney said: ‘I will simply say that the Supreme Court judgement has come out.’

Scottish Conservative equalities spokeswoman Tess White MSP described it as ‘despicable’ that Mr Swinney ‘is still refusing to respect women’s rights despite the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling.’

She added: ‘His reluctance to scrap the SNP’s dangerous gender policies is disgraceful and a betrayal of biological women across Scotland.

‘John Swinney now needs to drop his self-serving ideological obsession and ensure public bodies follow the law by providing single-sex spaces for women and girls.’

The SNP and Nicola Sturgeon were both contacted for comment.