Recently a 21-year-old British woman named Gemma Watts was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexual offenses with underage girls.
What makes this case unique (and bizarre) is that Watts decided to create an online persona in order to lure in her victims — this persona being 16-year-old Jake Waton. She would then disguise herself by tying her hair into a bun and wearing a baseball cap, hoodie, and jogging pants.
Watts then convinced her victims to let her meet them in person, even travelling by train to their homes for their sexual rendezvouses. Some of these relationships with her victims would last for months. In addition, Watts is said to have sexually assaulted as many as 50 girls.
One wonders how none of these girls realized that they were having a relationship with a 21-year-old woman. Apparently in one case, Watts stuffed a sock into her pants in order to simulate a penis.
Watts soon came under investigation when one of her victims told her physician that she had been sexually assaulted by Jake Waton.
Despite knowing that she was being investigated, Watts decided to continue her relationships with these girls.
She eventually confessed her crimes to the authorities and pled guilty.
However, Watts showed no remorse for her actions, nor did she give an explanation for what she did.
A similar story that took place in Britain a few years ago involved 27-year-old Gayle Newland, who also pretended to be a man online named Kye Fortune in order to lure in other women.
Newland would then persuade her victims to wear a blindfold when they met, and rely on a prosthetic penis in order to have sex with them.
She was eventually arrested, convicted, and sentenced to eight years in prison for sexual assault, but her conviction was thrown out on the grounds that the judge’s summary of the case was not fair and balanced.
Newland was then retried, convicted, and sentenced to six-and-a-half years. During her second trial, Newland was not only convicted of sexual assault, but also for fraud at the internet advertising agency where she was employed, in which she defrauded her former employers by creating fake client profiles. She then manipulated the firm’s payment process by which contributors received small payments in posting advertisements.
At any rate, both Watts and Newland are both disturbed individuals.
I should point out Gemma Watts should not be confused with another woman who also has the name Gemma Watts, who is an Australian beauty expert, entrepreneur, and the editor of glowjournal.com.
