A woman has been found guilty of pretending to be a man to trick her female friend into having sex.

A court heard how 27-year-old Gayle Newland, of Willaston, Cheshire, created an online persona to satisfy her sexual urges.

Newland was found guilty of committing sexual assault using a prosthetic penis without the victim's consent during a retrial at Manchester Crown Court.

In November 2015 she was jailed for eight years after she was convicted of the same offence at Chester Crown Court but the conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal last December.

A retrial was ordered after it was found that the trial judge's summing up of the case was not fair and balanced.


Newland persuaded the victim to wear a blindfold at all times when they met and she only realised she was having sex with her when she finally took it off.

The defendant claimed the woman was fully aware she was pretending to be Kye Fortune - a Facebook profile she created at the age of 15 in which she used an American man's photographs and videos as they engaged in role play while struggling with their sexuality.

Newland denied that a blindfold had been used as they had sex on about 10 occasions at the victim's flat in Chester in 2013.

Image: Newland was found guilty after a retrial

She also told the court she did not strap bandages to her chest or wear a swimsuit and a woollen hat to hide her appearance.

The court heard Newland spent "hundreds" of hours talking on the telephone to her friend as Kye and had spent more than 100 hours in each other's company.

The complainant said these encounters included her wearing a blindfold at all times together - including watching television and even on a car journey.

Prosecutor Simon Medland QC told the jury: "This manipulative, deceitful and very crafty young woman went to such astonishing lengths to control the complainant's life and make her do the things the defendant wanted her to do."

The verdicts can be reported after reporting restrictions imposed at the start of the retrial were lifted.

Newland was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault and cleared of a fourth count.

She cried in the dock, shook her head and said: "I can't go back to jail."

The Recorder of Manchester, Judge David Stockdale QC, granted Newland bail ahead of sentencing on 20 July but he told her the "overwhelming likelihood" was that she would receive "a significant immediate custodial sentence".