A woman who allegedly posed as a man to sexually assault a teenager also met up with someone else after messaging them online, a court has heard.
Georgia Bilham, 21, is charged with 17 sexual offences after allegedly deceiving a 19-year-old woman by pretending to be George Parry, a male drug dealer from Birmingham.
A trial at Chester Crown Court has heard she wore a hood while meeting the short-sighted complainant, claiming to be “paranoid” because of an involvement with Albanian gang members.
On Thursday, the jury heard from another woman who said she had been in contact with “George” over Snapchat since she was 16.
He was wearing his hood up the whole time and I just thought he must be shy, don’t know, it was weird— Nikita Hughes, witness
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 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, 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.”
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, of Bunbury Road, Alpraham, Cheshire, denies nine sexual assaults and eight counts of assault by penetration.
The trial continues.
