Gayle Newland: Woman who tricked friend into sex by pretending she was a man jailed for six years

The sentence came after a retrial

Gayle Newland, 26, is accused of duping a female friend into having sex by pretending to be a man (PA)

A woman who pretended to be a man to trick a friend into having sex with her has been sentenced to more than six years in prison.

Gayle Newland was found guilty of committing sexual assault after she used a prosthetic penis to have sex with her victim, who was unaware of her partner's real identity because she wore a blindfold.

Ms Newland sobbed and slumped to the floor of the dock as sentence was handed down on Thursday.

Ms Newland had created a fictional Facebook profile, pretending to be a half-Filipino half-Latino man called Kye Fortune, using an American man's photographs and videos. When she met with her victim, she asked her to wear a blindfold at all times, and the attacker's identity was only revealed when she removed that mask.

The defendant spent "hundreds" of hours talking on the telephone to her friend as Kye telling her "emotionally vulnerable" victim "he" was undergoing treatment for cancer and was paranoid about his physical appearance.

She agreed demands for her to wear a blindfold at all times during sexual encounters and while watching television, going on a car journey and even sunbathing.

Newland claimed both women were gay and struggling with their sexuality when they met up and had sex, with her as Kye, during role-play.

She denied concealing her true identity but was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault and cleared of a fourth count.

Newland was jailed for eight years in November 2015 after she was convicted of the same offences by another jury at Chester Crown Court.

But the conviction was quashed in the Court of Appeal last December and a retrial ordered after it was ruled the trial judge's summing up of the case was not fair and balanced.

Newland, who graduated from the University of Chester with a degree in marketing and creative writing, wailed "I can't go back to jail," after being found guilty a second time.

She was bailed by the Recorder of Manchester, Judge David Stockdale QC, but he warned a "significant" custodial sentence was likely, when he passes sentence later on Thursday at Manchester Crown Court.

Additional reporting by Press Association