Excessive Jail Sentence For Woman Guilty Of 'pretending' To Be A Man

[toalisi]

Anyone else think that the 8 year jail sentence handed down to
the woman who pretended to be a man and used a strap on
to have sex with a girl friend is over the top.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/12/gayle-newland-sentenced-eight-years-prison-duping-friend-having-sex

[Old_Geezer]

Not really. Fooling (even the foolish) into having a homosexual relationship when their victim is heterosexual is going to serious mess with their victim's mind. She is lucky to get away with that, had her victim a temper she might not be here to think about what she did, for the next 8 years.

[hc4361]

No, I don't.

[cassa333]

psychological help is probably more needed than prison.

Has there been any cases of men pretending to be women and men being duped into having sex with them? as that is the comparison surely!!

mind you I do wonder at the mental ability of a woman (anyone) who would wear a blind fold for every meeting!!!

[andy-hughes]

It does seem excessive.

I appreciate that the victim has been traumatised, but I feel that a sentence that is often less than is offered for rape sends out the wrong message.

It is easy to imagine that his honour may have lived something of a sheltered life and is so freaked out by the situation that he felt he had to have a rub-down with a damp copy of the Law Review, and hit her with a high sentence to try and make sure he didn't have to hear anything so weird ever again.

Hopefully an appeal will see the sentence reduced to a more reasonable level.

[Canary42]

Not excessive. it's basically RAPE.

[naomi24]

//I do wonder at the mental ability of a woman (anyone) who would wear a blind fold for every meeting!!! //

I wondered about that too.

[jackthehat]

This case does seem a bit odd.

On first reading, I thought the sentence may have been excessive, given the terms handed out to male rapists.

I'm still not sure quite what to think...

[Old_Geezer]

I don't believe it can be classed as consensual when the victim is being lied to about such an important aspect. They were consenting to something else, and discovered the truth later. It's more rape++

[marval]

This is a tough one, what she did was wrong, but the friend was very naïve. Fancy always wearing a mask, not knowing who the other person really was.

[bednobs]

or knowing her voice or smell

[Prudie]

I was going to post this yesterday and ask ABers, who are often far more opinionated and knowledgeable on such matters than me, to explain to me why this sentence was acceptable because on the surface it seems very excessive to me.

[alan23]

i saw this yesterday and my first thought to the headline was whats going on the perpetrator is fit(joke)

8 years is excessive(not my opinion on sex crimes) but she will get it reduced on appeal, the reason for the length of the sentence was the aggravating factors, i presume the victim was hetrosexual imagine that.
the judge gave what compared to other cases a heavy sentence because his hampster was poorly and hed run out of his favourite unoaked cote du rhone

[mikey4444]

I really don't understand this case at all. How on earth could the victim have been fooled so often and so well ?

[Peter Pedant]

you/re a man mikey

this is full stream girlie stuff ....

[ a mirror of Marilyn Monroes comment on the script of Some Like it Hot which was on the lines of - for chrissakes a girl ( that would be Sugar ) not being able to tell that s/o is a man ( erm Daphne ) ]

There is a case of a French diplomat who was 'married' to a geisha for x years who then turned out to be a man and there were questions of how can you think coitus inter crura is the real thing ?

[Barmaid]

I see that it "feels" excessive. However, read the Judge's sentencing remarks here https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgments/sentencing-remarks-of-hhj-dutton-r-v-gayle-newland/

It seems aggravating features were planning, breach of trust, deception, crime committed in victims own home, the unusual nature leading to ridicule etc. The problem will be that it is going to be difficult to set the sentence in this case since there is no polarity with other cases.

How was the victim taken in? Quite simply, she was lonely and vulnerable and wanted to be loved. Some lonely and vulnerable people are ripe for believing anything their abuser tells them.

[mikey4444]

PP...yes you are correct, so I am bowing gracefully out of this thread pronto !

[viv41]

I was slightly surprised when I read 8 years.