Schoolgirl jailed for posing as man to seduce girl, 16
A SCOTTISH schoolgirl who posed as a boy to seduce another girl was jailed for three years yesterday.
Justine McNally, 18, fooled the 16-year-old into believing she was a boy called Scott as they dated online.
The relationship continued for three-and-a-half years and culminated in three sex sessions in which the victim thought she had lost her virginity.
But the ruse was uncovered when a friend of the 16-year- old’s mother found a sex toy in McNally’s bag.
Jailing McNally, of Cambuslang, Glasgow, Judge James Patrick told her that her treatment of her victim was callous.
He said: ‘She had her first sexual experience with you and you abused her trust so badly that she finds it difficult to trust other people.
‘It was selfish and callous behaviour – a grave abuse of trust of her, her family and friends through your behaviour over a period of years.’
McNally posed as a Goth and ‘fooled everybody’ when she visited her victim in London, Wood Green Crown Court was told.
Then aged 17, McNally lured the besotted girl into bed, promising they would get married and have children.
The 16-year- old, who bought condoms in preparation for their first encounter, was fooled into thinking she had lost her virginity in the dark bedroom of a family friend’s house.
Prosecutor David Markham said the relationship began when the victim, then aged 12 or 13, met McNally through an online game.
They exchanged intimate messages in which ‘Scott’ fantasised about sex with the schoolgirl, who lived in North London.
They eventually met in March 2011, when McNally travelled from Scotland to visit the girl and stayed with a friend of her family.
The couple had three sexual encounters in which McNally refused to remove her clothes.
McNally’s secret was finally exposed eight months later during another visit when the family friend became suspicious and searched her posses- sions. She found a bra, a woman’s top and the sex toy, and immediately told the victim’s mother by telephone.
When the mother told her daughter that her ‘boyfriend’ was actually a girl, the victim was physically sick.
The two then confronted McNally who produced a Facebook picture of herself dressed in pink clothing and heels and said she wanted to have a sex change.
Mr Markham said: ‘Because of the abuse of trust, the trauma to the victim and the peculiar circumstances, this is an extraordinary case. This case is about the defendant, then aged 17, sexually assaulting the
‘She was confused and bewildered’
victim, then aged 16, by deceiving her into believing that she, the defendant, was a boy.
‘She obtained consent to physical intimacy between them by fraud. The case involves a very serious abuse of trust.’
Speaking about the victim, Mr Markham said she has been left ‘confused and bewildered’ and struggles to build relationships with others.
‘What should be an exciting era in her life has been darkened by what has been done to her,’ he said.
Keith Thomas, defending, said McNally had a difficult upbringing and wanted treatment for ‘gender issues’.