Why this fraudster needs help, not prison Troubled private schoolgirl tricked a female student into sex by pretending to be a man... But is she really a sex offender - Live News
Why this fraudster needs help, not prison Troubled private schoolgirl tricked a female student into sex by pretending to be a man... But is she really a sex offender
As the jury foreman delivered the guilty verdicts, Gayle Newland shook her head and wailed: ‘I can’t go back to prison — I can’t.’ Three weeks later, she returned to court for sentencing and was told she would be jailed for six-and-a-half years.
Newland once again failed to hold back her emotions, sobbing in the dock and stamping her feet. ‘No!’ she cried out.
Such reactions are perhaps unsurprising, since Newland has already had a taste of what is to come. The 27-year-old was originally convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail in 2015, but was freed from prison on bail after a successful appeal following criticism of the judge’s summing up, forcing the recent retrial.
While at HMP Low Newton, a maximum security prison near Durham, she spent time on the same wing as mass murderer Rose West. Newland, a privately-educated university graduate, rubbing shoulders with Britain’s most notorious living female killer? How on earth did that happen?
The answer lies in one of the most extraordinary and controversial criminal cases of recent times.
In brief, Newland was jailed for pretending to be a man to trick a female friend into sleeping with her. Posing as a male called Kye Fortune, she went online to seduce a fellow student at the University of Chester.
When they finally met in person, she persuaded her victim to wear a blindfold at all times. Then, maintaining the deceit that she was a man by using a strap-on sex toy, Newland had multiple sex sessions with her.
The victim not only wore the blindfold during sex but also for at least 100 hours when the pair were together — going for drives, sunbathing and even ‘watching’ films. When the student finally ripped off her blindfold, she was horrified to discover Gayle Newland, not Kye, standing in front of her.
Unlike Newland, she was not a lesbian, and had she known who it was, she said, would never have consented. And it is that which goes to the controversy at the heart of the case.
Newland’s supporters rail both at her conviction and her sentence. How could an intelligent woman — as her victim undoubtedly is — have been duped for so long and in such a way? Doesn’t Newland’s explanation that both were in fact gay and that they were indulging in role-play make far more sense?
As for her sentence, that has been branded ‘shameful’, ‘cruel’ and ‘shocking’ by posters on a Facebook group set up in her name.
Similar sentiments have been expressed by members of the legal profession, who question how such a deception could merit a sentence that paedophiles and rapists do not always receive.
They say that a number of similar recent cases show that young men and women — often gay or transgender — are being unfairly treated by the criminal justice system purely because of confusion about their sexuality and gender.
‘I can’t help thinking that it doesn’t feel right to me to describe these cases in the same way as what you might think of classic sexual offending,’ says Matthew Graham, head of criminal law at law firm Mowbray Woodwards.
‘Because it isn’t the same. You can do a hell of a lot and get a similar sentence: wearing a balaclava, you can walk up to someone on the street, drag them down an alleyway and sexually assault them. And to say that matches this case feels to me completely wrong.
‘The gravity of the offending is that Newland lied. She told a lie. And that seems to be the seriousness of it, rather than the heart of the sexual assault.’
That Gayle Newland is a complex character there can be no doubt.
Raised in a £500,000 house in Willaston, on the Wirral, she attended £12,400-a-year Queen’s School in Chester paid for by her father Brian, who ran a construction company.
At school, she began developing her online alter ego, Kye. At first she used the false name to speak to girls on internet chatrooms, but soon it became part of a bizarre double life, Kye Fortune’s character embellished with an American man’s photographs and videos.
Asked to explain why she hid behind this fake profile, Newland said: ‘I had gone from primary school where I was happy — a mixed primary school, where all my best friends were boys — to a completely different environment at an all-girls school. I knew I was attracted to girls, but I didn’t know what that meant. That was one reason: I was more comfortable.’
By the time Newland got to the University of Chester to study creative writing, she had used Kye to dupe unsuspecting girls on more than one occasion, but never before with such devastating effect.
Her victim this time was also at the university. An attractive but vulnerable young woman, she had been brought up in a Methodist family and had recently split from a boyfriend, with whom she had been in an abusive relationship.
She told Manchester Crown Court that Kye first contacted her on Facebook in 2011, claiming he was a fellow student. They spent hours talking, coming to regard each other as boyfriend and girlfriend, despite never having met.
For a year, Kye stalled — claiming to be self-conscious of injuries suffered in a car crash and to be seriously ill with cancer.
But at the same time Kye was eager to introduce her to a ‘close friend’, Gayle Newland. The pair got to know one another in person, going to concerts and watching films together.
As the jury foreman delivered the guilty verdicts, Gayle Newland shook her head and wailed: ‘I can’t go back to prison — I can’t.’ Three weeks later, she returned to court for sentencing and was told she would be jailed for six-and-a-half years.
Newland once again failed to hold back her emotions, sobbing in the dock and stamping her feet. ‘No!’ she cried out.
Such reactions are perhaps unsurprising, since Newland has already had a taste of what is to come. The 27-year-old was originally convicted and sentenced to eight years in jail in 2015, but was freed from prison on bail after a successful appeal following criticism of the judge’s summing up, forcing the recent retrial.
While at HMP Low Newton, a maximum security prison near Durham, she spent time on the same wing as mass murderer Rose West. Newland, a privately-educated university graduate, rubbing shoulders with Britain’s most notorious living female killer? How on earth did that happen?
The answer lies in one of the most extraordinary and controversial criminal cases of recent times.
In brief, Newland was jailed for pretending to be a man to trick a female friend into sleeping with her. Posing as a male called Kye Fortune, she went online to seduce a fellow student at the University of Chester.
When they finally met in person, she persuaded her victim to wear a blindfold at all times. Then, maintaining the deceit that she was a man by using a strap-on sex toy, Newland had multiple sex sessions with her.
The victim not only wore the blindfold during sex but also for at least 100 hours when the pair were together — going for drives, sunbathing and even ‘watching’ films. When the student finally ripped off her blindfold, she was horrified to discover Gayle Newland, not Kye, standing in front of her.
Unlike Newland, she was not a lesbian, and had she known who it was, she said, would never have consented. And it is that which goes to the controversy at the heart of the case.
Newland’s supporters rail both at her conviction and her sentence. How could an intelligent woman — as her victim undoubtedly is — have been duped for so long and in such a way? Doesn’t Newland’s explanation that both were in fact gay and that they were indulging in role-play make far more sense?
As for her sentence, that has been branded ‘shameful’, ‘cruel’ and ‘shocking’ by posters on a Facebook group set up in her name.
Similar sentiments have been expressed by members of the legal profession, who question how such a deception could merit a sentence that paedophiles and rapists do not always receive.
They say that a number of similar recent cases show that young men and women — often gay or transgender — are being unfairly treated by the criminal justice system purely because of confusion about their sexuality and gender.
‘I can’t help thinking that it doesn’t feel right to me to describe these cases in the same way as what you might think of classic sexual offending,’ says Matthew Graham, head of criminal law at law firm Mowbray Woodwards.
‘Because it isn’t the same. You can do a hell of a lot and get a similar sentence: wearing a balaclava, you can walk up to someone on the street, drag them down an alleyway and sexually assault them. And to say that matches this case feels to me completely wrong.
‘The gravity of the offending is that Newland lied. She told a lie. And that seems to be the seriousness of it, rather than the heart of the sexual assault.’
That Gayle Newland is a complex character there can be no doubt.
Raised in a £500,000 house in Willaston, on the Wirral, she attended £12,400-a-year Queen’s School in Chester paid for by her father Brian, who ran a construction company.
At school, she began developing her online alter ego, Kye. At first she used the false name to speak to girls on internet chatrooms, but soon it became part of a bizarre double life, Kye Fortune’s character embellished with an American man’s photographs and videos.
Asked to explain why she hid behind this fake profile, Newland said: ‘I had gone from primary school where I was happy — a mixed primary school, where all my best friends were boys — to a completely different environment at an all-girls school. I knew I was attracted to girls, but I didn’t know what that meant. That was one reason: I was more comfortable.’
By the time Newland got to the University of Chester to study creative writing, she had used Kye to dupe unsuspecting girls on more than one occasion, but never before with such devastating effect.
Her victim this time was also at the university. An attractive but vulnerable young woman, she had been brought up in a Methodist family and had recently split from a boyfriend, with whom she had been in an abusive relationship.
She told Manchester Crown Court that Kye first contacted her on Facebook in 2011, claiming he was a fellow student. They spent hours talking, coming to regard each other as boyfriend and girlfriend, despite never having met.
For a year, Kye stalled — claiming to be self-conscious of injuries suffered in a car crash and to be seriously ill with cancer.
But at the same time Kye was eager to introduce her to a ‘close friend’, Gayle Newland. The pair got to know one another in person, going to concerts and watching films together.
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