Accused: Gayle Newland arriving at Chester Crown Court this morning
Woman who posed as a man in relationship for months!
This is one of the craziest stories i have ever come across.How can you have a relationship with someone for months and have s3x without realising they were of the same s3x as you?. A woman bandaged her body and used a prosthetic penis in order to trick a naive female university student into believing she was a man, a court heard.
Gayle Newland, 25, is said to have befriended the woman, also 25, by posing on Facebook
as a man named 'Kye' and the couple later had s.ex in hotels in Chester, Greater Manchester.
as a man named 'Kye' and the couple later had s.ex in hotels in Chester, Greater Manchester.
Newland allegedly bound her chest and wore a woolly hat and swimsuit to disguise her appearance, telling the woman he was self-conscious about 'his' appearance after hospital
treatment.
treatment.
The alleged victim said had agreed to follow 'rules' which included not touching Kye's 'p.enis' and wearing a blindfold but 'believed she was having s.ex with a male', Chester Crown Court heard.
Newland, of Cheshire, denies five counts of s*xual assault which are alleged to have taken place between February and June, 2013, when they were both students at the University of Chester.
Hailing it 'undoubtedly an unusual case', prosecutor Matthew Corbett-Jones said the alleged assaults took place against 'what on the face of it is a fairly extraordinary background'.
Newland set up a Facebook profile under the alias of 'Kye Fortune' and sent the alleged victim a friend request in 2011, telling her that he knew of her through a mutual friend, the court heard.
As their relationship developed, the alleged victim made a number of requests to meet in person, but each was met by Kye with 'repeated excuses'.
And during their telephone conversations, Kye is said to have dismissed his high-pitched voice as a result of his Filipino heritage.
When the couple finally met at The Dene Hotel, Chester, on February 22, 2013, Newland, posing as Kye, is said to have insisted the alleged victim wore a blindfold, claiming he was insecure about his appearance following an accident.
The prosecution say that Newland wore a swimming costume with bandages binding her chest and a hat to conceal her hair, maintaining the outfit was necessary because of the injuries.
The two then had s.ex with Newland using a prosthetic penis without the alleged victim's knowledge, it is claimed.
Mr Corbett-Jones said that 'at no time' did the woman consent to sex with the use of a prosthetic and in so doing, 'the defendant s*xually assaulted' her.
The pair went on to meet and have s*x at a Travelodge in Chester and at the alleged victim's home in the city.
When the alleged victim became unhappy in the relationship and tried to break up, Kye messaged her saying he would kill himself, it was heard.
He told her his foster mother had died and that he believed his foster father had played a role in her death, and that he needed to see her.
She agreed to meet him at her flat on June 30 and the couple had s3x again but this time she became suspicious and removed her blindfold for the first time.
The woman claimed it was only then she realised she was in bed with a woman. She unsuccessfully tried to call the police and a struggle followed before she fled the property.
Later that day, police were called to a canal bridge in Mollington, Cheshire, from where Newland had apparently jumped.
Underneath her clothes, she was wearing what appeared to be a swimming costume and had a woolly hat with her.
On July 3, the alleged victim went to the police and Newland was arrested the following day but declined to give her account of what had taken place.
The alleged victim told police: 'I know it sounds pathetic, but I was just so happy at the time because I was in love with this person and we'd built this beautiful relationship.
'It was just based on, you know, our minds and all the other things that we had in common so I just felt grateful that I'd finally got a proper relationship.'
During the course of the relationship, the prosecution say that Newland even sent the alleged victim a ring as Kye and declared a wish to marry her one day.
Newland claims that her alleged victim knew she was in fact a woman and that they were both 'going along with some sort of fantasy' that she was Kye, explained Mr Corbett-Jones.
He invited the jury to consider how 'gullible or naive' they consider the alleged victim is.
'It is unquestionably the case that if what she says is true, she is by her nature a very gullible, and I hope she will forgive me for saying so, naive person,' he added.
The trial continues.