A teenage girl who claims she was duped into sex by a woman pretending to be a boy called George knowingly went along with a ‘fiction’, a court was told today.
Urging jurors to clear Georgia Bilham of the 17 sexual offences she faces, the 21-year-old’s barrister said that while ‘deceit may be devastating, it is not a crime‘.
However in its closing speech today, the prosecution labelled Bilham ‘an accomplished liar who spent four years maintaining a persona that does not exist’ – and who wanted a jury to believe she was now telling the truth.
Bilham admits pretending to be a young man called George Parry whenever the pair met, keeping her hood up to hide her long blonde hair even when they slept together.
She allegedly removed the short-sighted teenager’s glasses when they were together to help keep up the pretence.
Urging jurors to clear Georgia Bilham (pictured today) of the 17 sexual offences she faces, the 21-year-old’s barrister said that while ‘deceit may be devastating, it is not a crime’
However in its closing speech today, the prosecution labelled Bilham ‘an accomplished liar who spent four years maintaining a persona that does not exist’ – and who wanted a jury to believe she was now telling the truth (pictured: Bilham with her dad)
But giving evidence at her trial yesterday, she insisted she believed the alleged victim – a year her junior – saw through her disguise shortly after their first kiss.
‘I think she knew that I was a girl,’ Bilham said.
Giving her closing speech to the jury at Chester Crown Court today, her barrister, Martine Snowdon, said Bilham found herself in the dock ‘through mistakes she has made and behaviour she regrets’.
She told the jury of six men and six women they needed to be ‘careful’ about ‘making an assessment of someone’s world that we may ourselves have not experienced’.
‘For some people gender is fundamental to a relationship, for others it is not,’ she said.
‘For some people sexual orientation is fixed and remains constant but this is not so for all people.
‘Some people are more fluid.
‘Georgia Bilham has done her best to explain to you how she created a protective shell, an identity she could hide behind, take shelter in.
‘The law does not criminalise deceit in a relationship.
‘People all over the world carry on affairs for many years and lie to cover the facts but, though deceit may be devastating, it is not a crime.’
Bilham admits pretending to be a young man called George Parry whenever the pair met, keeping her hood up to hide her long blonde hair even when they slept together
She allegedly removed the short-sighted teenager’s glasses when they were together to help keep up the pretence
Ms Snowdon argued that the alleged victim had worked out that ‘George’ was really a woman – including being told by police after the pair were involved in a car crash – yet she continued with the relationship.
‘There is no doubt that Georgia Bilham lied about who she was, but they both knew it was fiction,’ Ms Snowdon said.
Quoting a message the alleged victim sent Bilham saying ‘I don’t even think you have a willy’, Ms Snowdon asked whether she was now ‘re-writing history so that suits her’.
‘Is it true that she was in love with the person and it did not matter who that was, male or female?
‘Whatever emotional needs between them, they both knew it was fiction, but neither could walk away.’
Earlier prosecutor Anna Pope told the jury they needed to decide whether the alleged victim knew ‘George’ wasn’t really a man – and whether Bilham believed her deceit had been successful.
‘The defendant is a sophisticated liar, but she says that despite that she is asking you to believe she is now telling the truth,’ she said.
By contrast, she said, the alleged victim had been ‘open and frank and has gone into a significant amount of detail as to what happened’.
‘She was clear about what George said to and did to her as a man,’ Ms Pope added.
‘She was in love with a man called George Parry, not a woman, and we say that on the evidence she trusted he was a man and when she agreed to sexual activity she thought it was with a man.’
The prosecution say that in August 2021 when the truth was finally uncovered and the alleged victim knew who she really was, she blurted out in a message: ‘Oh My God, you are Georgia Bilham.’
Ms Pope added: ‘It is clear from this that she had been deceived not just about the identity of the person but about the gender as well.
But giving evidence at her trial yesterday, she insisted she believed the alleged victim – a year her junior – saw through her disguise shortly after their first kiss
‘The evidence shows that Georgia Bilham is an accomplished liar who spent four years maintaining a persona that does not exist.’
Beginning his summing up, Judge Michael Leeming warned the jury they had to decide whether ‘true consent’ had been given for the acts that took place.
They would need to decide whether the alleged victim gave ‘properly consent’ to sex, and if Bilham ‘reasonably believed consent had been given’.
Bilham, from Alpraham, Cheshire, is charged with nine counts of sexual assault and eight counts of assault by penetration, all of which she denies.
The alleged offences took place between May and August 2021.
The trial continues.
DailyMail
