A national newspaper has been accused by the victim in the notorious Gayle Newland fake penis sex assault trial of revealing her ordeal to her own mother.
Newland, 27, of Willaston created the “disturbingly complex” online persona of a man named Kye Fortune to seduce the woman before using bandages, a woolly hat and a swimsuit to disguise her body.
The victim was told Kye was being treated for cancer and was embarrassed about his body, and agreed to wear a blindfold at all times when they were together.
The deception involved Newland using a strap-on prosthetic penis to penetrate the victim, who believed she was having sex with Kye, reported the Liverpool ECHO.
Newland, of Hooton Road in Willaston, near Neston, was jailed for six and a half years for three counts of sexual assault and an additional count of fraud at Manchester Crown Court today.
Under the law, all complainants of alleged sexual offences are protected by life-long anonymity and cannot be identified in press reports.
But today a personal statement from the victim, read to the court by Simon Medland, QC, prosecuting, described the effect of the extensive publicity around the case.
The woman described how Newland had “poisoned her life” before stating: “My mother was contacted by the Sun newspaper. Now she knows the truth that I was the unknown victim.”
She also described how Sun reporters discovered her new address after she left the Cheshire area, writing her another letter.
The woman has claimed she only ever told two friends about being the victim, but said people she knew at the time have realised the truth.
Describing the effects of the first case, she said: “Since and during the court case not only was I extremely anxious, but also full of shame, having to bear my soul to 12 strangers including the public gallery. Unfortunately the case acted as a stressor which caused me to self harm again.”
Nigel Power, QC, defending, asked Judge David Stockdale, QC, not to blame the publicity on his client and described the case as “the most notorious in the North West for quite some time.”
Sentencing Newland, Judge Stockdale said: “This was a deceit of such subtlety and cunning in its planning, and was a deceit from your point of view so successful in its execution, that an outsider to this case might find the facts difficult to comprehend.
“But in this case the truth, the whole truth, is as surprising as it is profoundly disturbing.”
Newland, who broke down and wailed from the dock, was ordered to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
