Woman, 21, who ‘tricked woman into sex by posing as a man’ claims she was ‘caught in a web of lies’
A WOMAN, 21, who allegedly tricked another woman into sex by posing as man has claimed she was “caught in a web of lies”.
Georgia Bilham, 21, from Alpraham in Cheshire, denies 17 sex offences after allegedly deceiving the young woman.
She admitted telling repeated lies to the teenager under cross-examination at Chester Crown Court.
Today is the final day of the trial, with the judge summing up before the jury deliberates.
Bilham posed online as George Parry, a drug dealer from Birmingham, and wore a hooded top when she met her alleged victim.
Prosecutor Anna Pope said that sex between Bilham and the woman took place on the basis of the teen’s mistaken belief that Bilham was a man.
But Bilham said that she believed the alleged victim knew that she was a woman – and that she simply did not want to reveal her identity.
Pope asked: “Why didn’t you just say you are a female with a different name?”
Bilham replied: “Because I was caught in a web of lies.”
Jurors heard that Bilham denied “getting a buzz” out of deceiving the teenager into believing she was a man.
When Bilham crashed her mother’s car into a hedge on a May 2021 drive with the young woman, cops asked for her licence – revealing her real name.
She said: “I think they told her I was female. It was not George, it was Georgia.
“I believe she knew about my gender the night of the crash.”
Chester Crown Court heard earlier that Bilham wore a hood while meeting the short-sighted complainant, claiming to be “paranoid” because of an involvement with Albanian gang members.
The jury heard from a former McDonald’s worker who said she had been in contact with “Brummy George” over Snapchat since she was 16.
Nikita Hughes, 22, told the court she had the number stored in her phone as “Brummy George”.
She said: “They used to have like a bit of a Birmingham accent, like a male Birmingham accent.”
She said he would send her photos, which she believed were of him, and they spoke “all the time”, including on FaceTime.
In May 2021, they met when he drove to see her at the McDonald’s where she worked in north Wales, she said.
She told the court: “He was wearing his hood up the whole time and I just thought he must be shy, don’t know, it was weird.”
She said at one point she caught a glimpse of his face but he pushed her away.
In a statement, she said in the short time she was with him “the way he behaved was strange” and so she decided not to see him again.
The court also heard from friends of the complainant, including one who left the witness box in tears after describing the effect it had on her friend.
She said: “She told me her life had turned upside down.”
There is no suggestion that Nikita Hughes was sexually assaulted by Georgia Bilham.
Another described the complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, saying she “felt sick” after discovering Bilham’s identity.
The friend said: “She couldn’t believe it had happened to her. She’d really fallen for this person.”
One woman was asked if she had heard George’s voice while her friend was seeing him.
She said: “There would be voice notes of him explaining stuff to do with the Albanian gang.”
She said in the recordings he said he was “too deep into it to come out of it” and would “basically get killed” if he left the gang.
In a statement, optometrist Katriona Holding said the complainant was severely sight-impaired and without her glasses would only be able to see “shapes and movement but no detail”.
Bilham denies nine sexual assaults and eight counts of assault by penetration.
The trial continues.