Georgia Bilham posed online as George Parry, a man from Birmingham, and wore a hood while meeting a 19-year-old woman – the complainant confronted Bilham after discovering her identity in August 2021
A woman accused of posing as a man and sexually assaulting a teenage girl said it was a “stupid mistake” and “it shouldn’t have happened”, 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 a man.
A trial at Chester Crown Court has heard she posed online as George Parry, a man from Birmingham, and wore a hood while meeting her short-sighted victim, claiming to be “paranoid” because of an involvement with Albanian gang members.
The complainant confronted Bilham after discovering her identity in August 2021, the jury heard.
In a message read to the court on Wednesday, Bilham told her: “I never meant for it to get this far.
“I’m so sorry for all of it. It was never me and it shouldn’t have happened.”
She told her alleged victim she hated herself for what she had done and had wanted to end it but “didn’t know how”.
She added: “I didn’t even dress like a lad, it just took over my life.
“It was a stupid, stupid, stupid mistake that shouldn’t have happened.”
Giving evidence, the complainant’s mother said her daughter had told her about seeing someone called George, who she said had social anxiety so kept his hood up.
She said her daughter seemed “really happy” in the relationship and had a “spark in her eye”.
The mother told the court: “I asked her if she was doing sexual things with George and she said yeah.
“I said ‘with his hood up?’ And she said ‘yeah’ and I thought ‘bit strange’.”
The court heard following a car crash in May 2021 the complainant overheard Bilham give her details to police.
Pc Dave Fallows told the court the woman, in the passenger seat of Bilham’s car when it collided with a hedge in the early hours of May 11, said she “felt sick” after she discovered the person she was with was female.
He said: “She believed that it was a male she’d been talking to over the internet and that they weren’t going to have any further contact.”
But the court was told Bilham claimed she had been using a fake licence so the complainant continued to see her.
She sent a screenshot of messages with someone she said was part of an Albanian gang and claimed she had been collected from the scene by one of the Albanians, although the court heard Bilham was picked up by her father.
The complainant’s mother said: “When (my daughter) came home from the crash I thought there’s no way somebody has got away with a girl’s ID, there’s not a chance, but when she showed me the screenshot, she was telling me what George was telling her and that he was going to send away for his passport and all these things, it made me believe it was true.”
She said “George” had stayed at their house on four occasions but she only met him once, although she knew he had stayed because the toilet seat had been left up.
Bilham, of Bunbury Road, Alpraham, Cheshire, denies nine sexual assaults and eight counts of assault by penetration.
The trial continues.