A woman accused of tricking her friend into sex while disguised as a man jumped into a canal before telling police 'my friend can't forgive me.'

Gayle Newland, 25, is charged with five counts of sexual assault after allegations she made her friend wear a blindfold before sexually assaulting her with a prosthetic penis, when they were both students at the University of Chester.

Newland, of Hooton Road in Willaston , near Neston, denies the charges and says the woman knew all along she was having sex with a female.

Chester Crown Court heard the defendant had been using the persona of a man called Kye Fortune, and had been speaking to the complainant online for about a year before they met.

Today, (Wednesday, September 9) the jury were read a statement from a police officer who came across the defendant being treated by paramedics after jumping into a canal from a bridge in Mollington.

The officer said he was asked by paramedics to collect her clothes, as they would have to remove them due to the risk of hypothermia.

“I have done something wrong, my friend can't forgive me.”

However she was found to be wearing what appeared to be a swimming costume under her normal clothing.

He said he later questioned Newland in hospital, who said: “I have done something wrong, my friend can't forgive me.”

The court had already heard claims from the complainant that Newland was wearing a swimming costume and a woolly hat when she first removed her blindfold and allegedly discovered the trick.

Today Newland took to the witness stand, claiming she first met the complainant, who admitted she was gay, at a nightclub.

Under questioning from her barrister, Nigel Power, QC, she said: “I don't know why, but I opened up to her quite quickly. She told me her struggle that she was gay, and she couldn't be open about it.”

She told the court she had first started using a male persona online at the age of 13, as a way of speaking to girls.

She claimed being gay is "not something I knew how to be."

She said: “:"It's hard to explain, especially with my upbringing being quite secluded, you don't get educated about being gay. You don't speak to gay people, It's seen as quite a negative thing."

However Newland said she told the complainant she had used the identity of Kye Fortune to speak to girls on facebook.

She claimed the Kye Fortune facebook profile received a friend request from the complainant some days later.

Earlier in proceedings the complainant told the court: “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."

She said she had 'always been heterosexual' and did not realise she was having sex with a woman.

The complainant told the court she was 'desperate to be loved' and was willing to go along with Kye's requests.

The court heard he was embarrassed about being seen due to cancer scars, and asked her to wear a mask and a scarf over her face whenever they met.

However her account was described as 'ridiculous' by Mr Power.

The trial continues.