Two heartbroken schoolgirls wept yesterday as they told how they were duped into sex with another girl after she posed as a boy.
Disguise: Gemma Barker tricked girls for sex
Scheming Gemma Barker, 20, adopted the identities of three separate “boyfriends” to contact her unsuspecting young victims on Facebook, a court heard.
She wore baggy clothing to hide her figure and hoodies to cover her face as she dated them and eventually tricked them into “heavy petting” sessions.
The two schoolgirls, who were friends aged 15 and 16 at the time, only discovered the deception when they reported a sexual assault by a “boy” – who turned out to be another of Barker’s assumed identities.
The truth finally came out when Barker – still dressed as a young lad – was “patted down” at a police station.
And yesterday as she was jailed for two and a half years after admitting sexual assault, her stunned victims told of their horror and devastation.
One of the girls, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was so traumatised she considered suicide.
In an impact statement read to Guildford crown court, she said: “Nobody understands what it’s like to be told that the person you love and want to spend the rest of your life with isn’t real.
“It’s like you’ve disappeared. I just want to stop hurting. When I found out he was a girl I was frightened and confused.
“What did I ever do wrong to you? I felt repulsed and dirty. It made me angry and made me want to kill myself because I couldn’t cope.”
The other girl, now 18, was sexually assaulted around 10 times during the seven month relationship.
She said after the case: “Connor was my first love. I was only 15 when I first met ‘him’. I absolutely adored him and thought he was gorgeous. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.
“I was devastated when I found out that it had been Gemma all along.
“It was like grieving. I fell in love with Connor after being encouraged to date him by Gemma.
“Now I find it difficult to trust anyone. It took me months before I could have another relationship with a boy. What she did was sick. I’ve needed rape counselling because I had been the victim of a sexual assault. But I don’t feel any shame. It’s Gemma that needs help.”
Barker’s bizarre charade loosely echoes the 1999 Hilary Swank film Boys Don’t Cry, based on the story of American teenager Brandon Teena, who was born a girl but who lived as a boy.
It began in November 2009, when she introduced the girls to their “ideal boyfriends”.
There were three of them, called Connor McCormack, Aaron Lampard and Luke Jones – all fictitious characters she had created on Facebook and each with their own email address and mobile phone number.
Barker, of Surrey, then began meeting the girls, changing the way she dressed, her walk and even the way she talked.
One girl said: “Connor was sweet and quite shy. He’d wear baggy clothing and often had a hoodie covering his face.
“I never saw him naked and had no idea that he was actually a girl. I just thought he was incredibly shy.
But the budding romance came to an end when “Connor” fell asleep on the bed in her room.
She explained: “It was only when she turned her face to one side that I thought: ‘Oh my God! That’s Aaron’.”
Later she rang her friend to tell her she thought Aaron was cheating on her. And three weeks later both girls went to the police to complain that Aaron had sexually assaulted the younger girl while pretending to be Connor.
Even at that stage neither suspected Connor and Aaron were the same person and a woman.
One of the girls said: “It took me ages to actually believe it. None of our friends could believe it either.”
Barker, who was said to have autism, showed no emotion as she was jailed and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register.
Judge Peter Moss described her as “cunning, cruel and manipulative”.
He told her: “You have never shown a flicker of remorse and nothing you have said to any of the experts sheds any light on why you committed these offences.”
Forensic psychologist David Nias analyses gender-deceit sex pest Gemma Barker
It is rare for a female to carry out such a prolonged, sophisticated sexual deception.
Lack of empathy and remorse, manipulation, craving of excitement and cruelty are classic hallmarks of psychopathy.
If she was a true psychopath, it is likely her behaviour would have been picked up by teachers while she was at school.
However, my feeling is that her behaviour is more likely to be a result of her autism.
People suffering from the condition have difficulty understanding and conforming to the norms of social behaviour.
They can also become obsessed with a particular theme. They are able to manipulate to their advantage, a means to an end.
I think her sexual fantasy has got out of hand and she has become obsessed with it.
Sadly, very little can be done to cure her – it’s more a case of supervision and counselling to try to correct her behaviour that she wants or needs to change.
