Woman accused of posing as a male found guilty of sexual assault by kissing
Robyn Vinter and Helen Pidd
Wed 14 Jun 2023 13.13 EDT
First published on Wed 14 Jun 2023 11.06 EDT
Georgia Bilham, 21, found not guilty of 16 other sexual offences at Chester crown court
Georgia Bilham told Chester crown court she got trapped in a ‘web of lies’. Photograph: Steve Allen/PA
A woman accused of posing as a teenage boy to sexually abuse a shortsighted woman has been cleared of 16 sexual offences and found guilty of one count of sexual assault by kissing.
Georgia Bilham, 21, had previously told Chester crown court she got trapped in a “web of lies” after posing as a boy to meet girls online. She kissed her victim while disguised as a boy, but the jury was not satisfied that by the time the pair had a sexual relationship, the woman had thought Bilham was a man.
The judge, Michael Leeming, told Bilham that after being found guilty of the first count, “all options are open” for her sentence and that she should not assume that she would be spared prison time.
The week-long trial heard how Bilham, from Alpraham, Cheshire, created a male alter ego called George as “an escape” from her unhappy life, saying her mum would not have approved of her being in a lesbian relationship.
Her barrister, Martine Snowdon, suggested in court that her actions were an effort to hide her sexuality among her family and friends. When asked why she lied to the victim, Bilham said she did not want her to know “that it was me. Not that it was a girl. That it was me.”
Bilham said she considered herself straight now but that, in retrospect, she was not in 2021.
The accuser, who was so shortsighted that she was legally blind, said she believed Bilham was a boy called George Parry who had anxiety and claimed to be “paranoid” because he was mixed up with Albanian drug dealers.
Whenever the pair met, Bilham would wear a hoodie tied around her face to hide her long blond hair, even when in bed. She wore male clothing and put on a deep voice with a Birmingham accent, the court heard, and always took off her victim’s glasses as soon as they met.
Bilham said she first encountered her victim when she was 14 when they met through a mutual acquaintance, hanging around as a group outside McDonald’s in Chester for half an hour.
She was approximately 15 or 16 when she first posed as “George” online, but 19 when the alleged sexual activity took place.
Snowdon asked Bilham why she created the false profile and kept it a secret from her friends and family. “I just wasn’t happy with myself,” Bilham said, adding that it was “just an escape”.
Snowdon asked: “Have you ever thought that you wanted to change your gender and become a boy?” Bilham answered: “No.”
The court heard how after a crash in Bilham’s car, the victim saw her driving licence when it was shown to police and it had clearly said “Georgia”.
The complainant texted her that evening, asking: “Answer this with yes or no: are you a girl? And if you are a girl, why the fuck have you lied all this time?”
Bilham said she assumed from that point the game was up, but continued to pretend to be George after the crash. “I was just trying to protect myself because I got myself caught up in the web of lies,” she told the court.
After the crash, the pair continued to see each other and the relationship turned sexual, the court heard.
The court also heard evidence from an optometrist from Specsavers who gave the alleged victim an eye test in January 2020. Katriona Holding said the complainant was so shortsighted that she would be classed as blind without her glasses.
She would “only be able to see shapes and movements, but no details” of anything further away than 14cm, she told the court.
Another young woman also told the jury she too had met “George” online in 2021 when “he” added her on Snapchat.
Nikita Hughes, 22, said she was 16 when they first started chatting. She said she called him Brummy George because of his accent and met him just once, after a failed attempt to meet him in Nando’s in Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre while on a college trip.
She told police there was something “strange” about George that “I couldn’t put my finger on”, but had no idea he was a girl.
After the verdict, the Crown Prosecution Service said Bilham had deprived the victim of the choice to agree to the activity.
The senior crown prosecutor Mairead Neeson said: “This has devastated the victim and her family and the effects of it will remain with her for a long time. The victim thought she was in a loving relationship with a man, but it was all lies, and Bilham is now a convicted sex offender.”
Judge Leeming adjourned the court for the preparation of a pre-sentence report before she is sentenced on 19 July.
Bilham will have to sign the sex offender register.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/ju...ault-by-kissing
Robyn Vinter and Helen Pidd
Wed 14 Jun 2023 13.13 EDT
First published on Wed 14 Jun 2023 11.06 EDT
Georgia Bilham, 21, found not guilty of 16 other sexual offences at Chester crown court
Georgia Bilham told Chester crown court she got trapped in a ‘web of lies’. Photograph: Steve Allen/PA
A woman accused of posing as a teenage boy to sexually abuse a shortsighted woman has been cleared of 16 sexual offences and found guilty of one count of sexual assault by kissing.
Georgia Bilham, 21, had previously told Chester crown court she got trapped in a “web of lies” after posing as a boy to meet girls online. She kissed her victim while disguised as a boy, but the jury was not satisfied that by the time the pair had a sexual relationship, the woman had thought Bilham was a man.
The judge, Michael Leeming, told Bilham that after being found guilty of the first count, “all options are open” for her sentence and that she should not assume that she would be spared prison time.
The week-long trial heard how Bilham, from Alpraham, Cheshire, created a male alter ego called George as “an escape” from her unhappy life, saying her mum would not have approved of her being in a lesbian relationship.
Her barrister, Martine Snowdon, suggested in court that her actions were an effort to hide her sexuality among her family and friends. When asked why she lied to the victim, Bilham said she did not want her to know “that it was me. Not that it was a girl. That it was me.”
Bilham said she considered herself straight now but that, in retrospect, she was not in 2021.
The accuser, who was so shortsighted that she was legally blind, said she believed Bilham was a boy called George Parry who had anxiety and claimed to be “paranoid” because he was mixed up with Albanian drug dealers.
Whenever the pair met, Bilham would wear a hoodie tied around her face to hide her long blond hair, even when in bed. She wore male clothing and put on a deep voice with a Birmingham accent, the court heard, and always took off her victim’s glasses as soon as they met.
Bilham said she first encountered her victim when she was 14 when they met through a mutual acquaintance, hanging around as a group outside McDonald’s in Chester for half an hour.
She was approximately 15 or 16 when she first posed as “George” online, but 19 when the alleged sexual activity took place.
Snowdon asked Bilham why she created the false profile and kept it a secret from her friends and family. “I just wasn’t happy with myself,” Bilham said, adding that it was “just an escape”.
Snowdon asked: “Have you ever thought that you wanted to change your gender and become a boy?” Bilham answered: “No.”
The court heard how after a crash in Bilham’s car, the victim saw her driving licence when it was shown to police and it had clearly said “Georgia”.
The complainant texted her that evening, asking: “Answer this with yes or no: are you a girl? And if you are a girl, why the fuck have you lied all this time?”
Bilham said she assumed from that point the game was up, but continued to pretend to be George after the crash. “I was just trying to protect myself because I got myself caught up in the web of lies,” she told the court.
After the crash, the pair continued to see each other and the relationship turned sexual, the court heard.
The court also heard evidence from an optometrist from Specsavers who gave the alleged victim an eye test in January 2020. Katriona Holding said the complainant was so shortsighted that she would be classed as blind without her glasses.
She would “only be able to see shapes and movements, but no details” of anything further away than 14cm, she told the court.
Another young woman also told the jury she too had met “George” online in 2021 when “he” added her on Snapchat.
Nikita Hughes, 22, said she was 16 when they first started chatting. She said she called him Brummy George because of his accent and met him just once, after a failed attempt to meet him in Nando’s in Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre while on a college trip.
She told police there was something “strange” about George that “I couldn’t put my finger on”, but had no idea he was a girl.
After the verdict, the Crown Prosecution Service said Bilham had deprived the victim of the choice to agree to the activity.
The senior crown prosecutor Mairead Neeson said: “This has devastated the victim and her family and the effects of it will remain with her for a long time. The victim thought she was in a loving relationship with a man, but it was all lies, and Bilham is now a convicted sex offender.”
Judge Leeming adjourned the court for the preparation of a pre-sentence report before she is sentenced on 19 July.
Bilham will have to sign the sex offender register.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/ju...ault-by-kissing
