A woman allegedly duped a fellow student into having lesbian sex with her – by pretending to be a man.

Gayle Dawn Newland, 25, denies five counts of sexual assault over the incidents, which allegedly occurred between February and June 2013, while both studied at the University of Chester.

Newland’s alleged victim – a woman who cannot be named for legal reasons – told Chester Crown Court that she had embarked on a relationship with a “man” that she met on Facebook, who used the name ‘Kye Fortune’.

However, after the pair’s romance progressed, she met up with ‘Fortune’ in real life to have consensual sex.

The alleged victim told the court she was convinced to wear a blindfold during sex sessions – because ‘Fortune’ claimed to have insecurities about his appearance due to injuries from a car accident.

But after meeting up on a number of occasions, the woman tore off the blindfold during a sexual encounter – and was shocked find not her supposed boyfriend, but Newland penetrating her with a prosthetic penis.

The alleged victim said:

When I was having sex I grabbed for the back of his head and my hand got caught on something. It did not feel right. I was sat on the bed, he was standing up. Something in my mind said ‘pull it (the blindfold) off, pull it off’.

I just pulled it off. Gayle was just standing there… I just couldn’t believe it, I couldn’t believe it. Straight away she held her hand down over her face and said ‘it’s not what you think’.”

The woman claims that Newland had manufactured the fake identity, and disguised her appearance in real life by binding her breasts and wearing a hat, in order to pass as the fictional man and trick her into sex.

She added:

I know it sounds pathetic, but I was just so happy at the time because I was in love with this person and we’d built this beautiful relationship. It was just based on, you know, our minds and all the other things that we had in common so I just felt grateful that I’d finally got a proper relationship.”

Prosecutor Matthew Corbett-Jones says that that though the woman had consented to sex, the defendant “sexually assaulted” her as “at no time” did she consent with Newland, using a prosthetic penis.

Newland denies the charges. The trial continues.