Get the inside track on the big stories from Liverpool Crown Court with our weekly newsletter Subscribe now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The alleged victim of a woman who pretended to be a man and used a prosthetic penis to have a sexual relationship with her says she ‘ruined her life’.

Gayle Dawn Newland, of Hooton Road in Willaston, Neston, is on trial at Chester Crown Court accused of five counts of sexual assault between February and June, 2013, when she and the alleged victim were students at the University of Chester.

Her alleged victim claims she believed she was in a relationship with a man called Kye Fortune, who she had met on Facebook in 2011.

The prosecution contend that the alleged victim did not knowingly consent to the use of the prosthetic device and that she did not know Newland was a woman.

A video recording of the alleged victim being interviewed by Cheshire police was played at the Chester Crown Court trial today.

The jury heard that she and Kye initially bonded over poetry and music, as well as family issues they had both experienced.

They soon became boyfriend and girlfriend, and she explained that she had been in an abusive relationship with someone she had seen every day so ‘maybe a change of pace is a good thing’.

She said that at first they did not meet up in person because he was focusing on his studies and then a couple of months into their relationship, he told her he had been involved in a car accident and doctors had discovered a tumour for which he had to undergo intensive treatment.

When she did push for them to meet, she said she received texts from Kye’s brother saying that he’d had a fit and that she needed to cherish what they had together.

The alleged victim said she was instructed to wear a sleeping mask over her eyes and a scarf on top so she could not see Kye

She and Kye communicated for around one year on the phone and via social media before they finally met at The Dene Hotel in Hoole in February, 2013.

The alleged victim said she was instructed to wear a sleeping mask over her eyes and a scarf on top so she could not see Kye, as he was insecure about his appearance because of the treatment he was receiving.

That was the first time they had sex, and they continued to have a sexual relationship over the following months, sometimes meeting at a Travelodge in Chester or at her home in the city.

She said: “I know it was not normal but it was just like any relationship

“We laughed together and cried together.

“I was willing to overlook it because I was in a relationship with this person for over a year.”

She said she ‘100% trusted’ Kye and that she viewed their first encounter as a ‘breakthrough’ and hoped that he would become more comfortable with her over time.

Citing the photos he sent her and videos on his Facebook and YouTube accounts, she said he seemed like ‘a feasible person’. She claimed that she often discussed the relationship with Newland, 25, who was introduced to her by Kye, who said they went to high school together.

Newland allegedly told her that she and Kye were ‘made for each other’.

On occasions that Kye could not be there but Newland could, the alleged victim said she ‘never made the connection’.

She said: “I feel like they set me up in this corner, this triangle. When me and Gayle had an argument, Kye would say it’s you, you’re not used to friendship like this.

“I felt like they used my insecurities against me.”

She removed the scarf and mask, and saw Newland standing there wearing a woolly hat, swimming suit and prosthetic penis

When she eventually tried to break up with him, she said he told her he would kill himself and so they met one final time at her flat on June 20, 2013.

They had sex but she told police that she felt something was ‘not right’ so she removed the scarf and mask, and saw Newland standing there wearing a woolly hat, swimming suit and prosthetic penis.

“I just could not believe it,” she said.

She said that Newland asked her if she remembered a conversation she and Kye had about the movie 17 Again, in which Matthew Perry’s character becomes a 17-year-old played by Zac Efron after a chance accident.

Kye had asked her how she would know it was really him if that had happened to him.

The alleged victim responded that she would have to ask personal questions that only he would know.

“Gayle was standing there saying it’s me, I asked to be better and this is what happened. They put me in this body.”

The alleged victim, who had stayed in Chester after her graduation because she believed she and Kye would start a life together, compared the revelation to the death of her grandma: “Kye died that day.”

She added: “I just do not understand why she decided to ruin my life.”

(Proceeding)