A woman who claims she was unaware that her boyfriend of two years was in fact another female who bound her chest with bandages, used a prosthetic penis and insisted that she wear a blindfold when they met was told the allegations are 'ridiculous' by defence lawyers today (September 9).

Gayle Newland, 25, is on trial at Chester Crown Court charged with five counts of sexual assault between February and June 2013, when she and the alleged victim were students at the University of Chester.

The woman says Newland disguised herself as a man called Kye Fortune, and made her wear a mask and a scarf when they had sex, using what she later found to be a prosthetic penis.

Newland, of Hooton Road in Willaston, near Neston, denies the charges, claiming the alleged victim knew all along that she was a woman and that they were both playing along with a fantasy that she was Kye.

Defence counsel Nigel Power QC questioned the alleged victim over claims that when she first met Kye Fortune, after speaking online, she saw the defendant's car driving away.

The court heard that the woman believed Kye and the defendant were friends, but 'never saw them in the same room together.'

Mr Power said: "Here you are for a year trying to meet the love of your life, and your friend knows him, and you never arranged to meet?"

Despite claiming to police she first met the defendant at The Dene Hotel in Hoole, the complainant admitted in court they first met at her student flat in Chester.

The court heard Kye, who is said to have made her wear the mask because he was embarrassed over surgery scars, told the complainant he had been driven to the flat by Newland.

She said when he left, she removed her mask and looked out of the window to see the defendant's red Mazda car driving away. She claimed she could not see whether there was another person in the car.

'Ridiculous'

Mr Power said: “You can see why it sounds ridiculous?”

She replied: "There is not a chance in hell if I knew it was Gayle that I would have ever had met up with this person, there is not a chance in hell I would have kissed this person."

He questioned her claims that she would lie with Newland, in disguise as Kye, watching a film despite the fact she was blindfolded.

The complainant said: “I was just happy to be lying next to the man I loved, hearing his heartbeat.”

She claimed she was 'so desperate to be loved' she went along with Kye's bizarre demands.

Mr Power also suggested comments made in a victim impact statement were 'lies'.

In the statement, given shortly after she discovered Kye was in fact Gayle Newland, she claimed to be a 'shell' and to have 'withdrawn into herself'.

However, Mr Power highlighted a video posted to her Instagram social media account, entitled 'p***** as a goat'.

In the video, she could be seen with her legs wrapped around a man, who is stood upright, performing 'pull ups' in front of a crowd of revellers.

The court heard the video was taken in Ibiza after the incident took place, despite the fact that she claimed she had not been on holiday in that time.

Mr Power suggested it meant her 'distress was not real'.

She replied: “You go through grief and something hits you like a ton of bricks and then you pick yourself up.”

The court also heard she went on dates with other men only three weeks after the incident.

She said she was 'happy to be with a man' and was attempting to 'throw herself' back into normality.

Under graphic questioning from Mr Power, she claimed she did not notice anything unusual as the pair had sex.

She said: “If I had known or had any inkling this was not a man there is no way I would have let her do that to me."

The trial continues - updates via our live blog.