A woman has told a Chester court she was “shocked and disgusted” when she discovered the person she had been in a sexual relationship with was female and not male.

Georgia Bilham, 21, of Alpraham, Cheshire, 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, which began on Monday, heard Bilham posed online as George Parry and wore a hood while meeting her short-sighted victim, claiming to be 'paranoid' because of an involvement with Albanian gang members.

In pre-recorded evidence played to Chester Crown Court on Tuesday, June 6, the complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she discovered Bilham’s identity after her mother met 'George' and told her she believed he was female.

She told the court: “I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”

She added: “She said she doesn’t think George is being honest with me, she doesn’t think he is who he says he is and then she said she thinks that he’s a girl.”

Martine Snowdon, defending, asked if that was the point the alleged victim had to 'face up' to what she had 'always known and suspected'.

The woman said: “I think that’s when it hit home for me.”

Ms Snowdon said: “You had to acknowledge what you had always suspected?”

The woman replied: “No, because I didn’t always suspect it.”

The jury of six men and six women was told the complainant heard police refer to her partner as Georgia following a car crash, but she had believed Bilham when she claimed to be using a fake driving licence.

She also found a bank card with the name on, but suspected it could be another girl Bilham had been seeing.

“I was just shocked and disgusted that I’d been so close with this person that turned out to be who it really was and that George wasn’t real,” she told the court.

She began contacting George on social media app Snapchat when she was 14 or 15, she said, and they had one meeting when she was about 16, but began seeing each other regularly in March or April 2021.

Under cross-examination, she agreed they had sent thousands of messages over the years and that the relationship was a 'bit like an addiction'.

She said she believed she had felt a penis through clothing on two occasions when they were together.

Ms Snowdon said: “Georgia Bilham denies that there was ever anything intended to mimic a penis in her clothing at any stage and either you’re not telling the truth about that or you’re mistaken.”

The woman said: “I disagree because I honestly thought that it was and that George was doing it so I’d know that it was there, but he’s just so nervous I didn’t want to push him.”

She said 'George' carried out sex acts on her but did not let her touch him, and they never had full sex.

“Every time I wanted it he didn’t want to go through with it,” she said.

The court heard messages she exchanged with another woman about 'George' in July 2021.

In one, the complainant said: “He genuinely does not take his hood down, even when he stayed over.”

She told the woman “George” said he would not take his hood down because he was 'para' and 'involved in some s**t'.

She added: “I’m in a situation-ship with someone I don’t even know is a girl or a boy.”

Bilham, of Bunbury Road, Alpraham, denies nine sexual assaults and eight counts of assault by penetration.

The trial, before judge Michael Leeming, continues.