Woman who 'discovered boyfriend was female during sex' is accused of lying

Gayle Newland arriving at Chester Courts on Wednesday for the second day of the trial Photo: Andrew Price

By Agency

2:13PM BST 09 Sep 2015

A woman who claimed her female friend posed as a man to dupe her into sex has been accused of lying.

The alleged victim broke down in tears on Wednesday when a court was shown a strap-on penis allegedly used in the act.

Nigel Power, for Newland's defence, revealed a bright pink appendage complete with black straps before asking the alleged victim if this was "what it looked like".

Becoming tearful the alleged victim of a sexual assault by Gayle Newland said she wouldn't have known.

The Dene Hotel in Chester, where the pair met  Photo: View Finder Pictures- Chester

Mr Power questioned the woman on day three of the trial accusing Gayle Newland, 25, of pretending to be man named "Kye Fortune" for the purpose of duping a woman into having sex with her.
Mr Power asked the woman - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - why she had never thought of seeing Newland and "Kye" in the same room together as they were both friends.
She replied: "I didn't think anything was unusual, there was always something (a reason) so I didn't think it was odd."
Mr Power then asked when it was the woman's birthday Kye had said he had dropped some stuff off at Gayle's for her and why did she not think that was odd instead of him dropping it off at her own house.
The woman replied: "I had no reason to believe that they were the same person. I was out all day."
The court heard the defence say Kye would visit the alleged victim every Sunday for six or seven hours when they began a physical relationship.
Gayle Newland arriving at Chester Courts  Photo: Andrew Price
Mr Power questioned the woman how she could be comfortable sitting in a mask and scarf - the items she allegedly forced wear around Kye - for that amount of time.
He said: "Did you never once think that this might not be Kye?"
The woman said: "I had no reason to believe that this wasn't him. It sounds stupid to say but we were in a proper relationship and it was just normal.
"I wish I had just ripped that mask off."
Questioned further about her level of intimacy with Newland the complainant said: "I can't stress enough I felt like I was being made love to by a male.
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Mr Power refuted this claim and said: "You knew you were with a woman and you knew it Gayle.
"Are you trying to disguise your sexuality?"
Gayle Newland arrives at Chester Crown Court where she denies five counts of sexual assault between February and June 2013  Photo: PA
Once again the woman denied Mr Power's questioning and said: "I'm comfortable with who I am, I've never needed to disguise anything."
Questioning further Mr Power said: "You suggested penetrative sex, and she (Gayle) said 'how would we do that?' and you told her to go online."
Again responding to this, the woman in tears said: "No I didn't."
In her victim impact statement shown to the court yesterday on video the woman claimed she had become a shell of her former self since finding out who Kye really was.
She also said she now spends a lot of her time being fearful of making eye contact with people.