Sep 22, 2026 · 40 min · 18 segments
Phoebe interviews author Izabella Scott about an unusual trial in England. One woman, referred to as Miss X, accused her best friend Gayle of posing as a man and tricking her into having a sexual…
Izabella ScottGuest
Phoebe JudgeHost
And so initially, Miss X calls 911, but they say, she says, it's not an emergency.
Miss X does follow up with the police and does report that a crime has been committed.
Well, Gayle is accused and prosecuted for this quite rare and actually quite old offense that's known as sexual fraud or rape by deception.
The idea is that you consent to sex at the time, you enjoy it, but you later discover something about that person.
And in British law, there are certain deceptions which, if proved in court, can make consent invalid and they can retrospectively turn sex into rape.
Gail Newland had tricked Miss X into thinking that she was male and that this was heterosexual sex, and Miss X had no idea that that isn't
She believed she was meeting up with her handsome boyfriend, a man whom she'd fallen in love with.
She believed that every time she had sex, she was having sex with this man, and she was having heterosexual sex, and she was having straight sex, and that she was completely deceived by Gayle each time.
So this is where the two stories diverge, which is that Gail Newland says that from very early on, they had a romantic sexual relationship.
And Miss X says that she had a very close friendship with Gail Newland, but it was always a friendship throughout the whole time of them knowing each other.
So in Miss X's story, there's these two completely different relationships in her life.
As students, as best female friends, they describe each other as besties and...
And so initially, Miss X calls 911, but they say, she says, it's not an emergency.
Miss X does follow up with the police and does report that a crime has been committed.
Well, Gayle is accused and prosecuted for this quite rare and actually quite old offense that's known as sexual fraud or rape by deception.
The idea is that you consent to sex at the time, you enjoy it, but you later discover something about that person.
And in British law, there are certain deceptions which, if proved in court, can make consent invalid and they can retrospectively turn sex into rape.
Gail Newland had tricked Miss X into thinking that she was male and that this was heterosexual sex, and Miss X had no idea that that isn't
She believed she was meeting up with her handsome boyfriend, a man whom she'd fallen in love with.
She believed that every time she had sex, she was having sex with this man, and she was having heterosexual sex, and she was having straight sex, and that she was completely deceived by Gayle each time.
So this is where the two stories diverge, which is that Gail Newland says that from very early on, they had a romantic sexual relationship.
And Miss X says that she had a very close friendship with Gail Newland, but it was always a friendship throughout the whole time of them knowing each other.
So in Miss X's story, there's these two completely different relationships in her life.
As students, as best female friends, they describe each other as besties and...
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