A UK woman who pretended to be a man to trick her female friend into having sex has been found guilty of three counts of sexual assault.

During a two-year period, Gayle Newland, 25, disguised her appearance and voice and demanded the woman wear a blindfold when they met up, the Chester Crown Court heard.

Newland pretended to be a man called Kye Fortune and wore bandages across her chest and a swimsuit to fool the complainant, Sky News reported.

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The court heard the pair had sex about 10 times until the woman, also aged 25, took off her blindfold and in disbelief saw Newland wearing a prosthetic penis.

Newland, who has identified as a lesbian since primary school, denied the charges and told the court that she and the victim were engaging in role play and fantasy as they struggled to accept their sexuality, the Daily Mail reported.

During the trial, Newland admitted she had invented ‘Kye’ when she was 13 as a way to speak to girls.

She later created ‘his’ Facebook profile, using photos taken from an American man’s social media page.

The complainant spent ‘hundreds’ of hours talking on the telephone to ‘Kye’ and the couple, then both students at the University of Chester, spent more than 100 hours in each other’s company.

According to the Daily Mail, when asked how they spent their time together, the complainant told the court they would sometimes watch a film while she was wearing a blindfold and on one occasion they went sunbathing.

The jury convicted Newland, from Willaston, Cheshire, of three counts of sexual assault.

She was cleared of two other counts of sexual assault.

She has been bailed until sentencing in November.