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The Girl Who Became Three Boys

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited January 2023 in General Chat
On channel 4 last night. Did anyone watch it?

Bit unfortunate. I found myself laughing a lot at Jessica (one of the victims) and her nan. Am I a bad person?

The whole story was just bizaare.
Post edited by JustV on
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Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    My housemate and I laughed the whole way through.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fiend_85 wrote: »
    My housemate and I laughed the whole way through.

    Glad someone did. Found myself being really skepitcal as to whether it's even true or not. Did you?

    Jessica had perfect comic timing during the interview 'I was really frigid as a teenager'. Ahh dear. Poor girl
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    "I have a toilet perfectly capable of holding sick, so, why wasn't he just sick in my toilet?"
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fiend_85 wrote: »
    "I have a toilet perfectly capable of holding sick, so, why wasn't he just sick in my toilet?"

    Ahh yeah that made me chuckle too. I do think something isn't quite right though. She must have really low self esteem if she waited on a grass verge for 7 hours to see her boyfriend and 'fell in love with him' despite never seeing his face and the communication through text message. I felt bad for her.

    Really really odd story though. Think Channel 4 wanted viewers to find it funny too.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Sounds like a typical TV producer deliberately choosing vulnerable people and editing them badly. Nothing like humiliation to pull in the punters.

    Just look at the fucknuckle on the other thread wanting to "help people with food phobias". Yeah, in the same way Embarrasing Bodies helps people with physical disfigurements.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Sounds like a typical TV producer deliberately choosing vulnerable people and editing them badly. Nothing like humiliation to pull in the punters.

    Just look at the fucknuckle on the other thread wanting to "help people with food phobias". Yeah, in the same way Embarrasing Bodies helps people with physical disfigurements.

    This programme was also followed by a bad documentary called 'Lost Children'. Point taken!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I didn't but had a retelling of it in the office this afternoon.

    Mindblown and hysterical laughter gets you half way to the picture. Especially as the guy telling the story ended up drawing diagrams to help with the explanation.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It's just, clearly Gemma has an issue of some kind. But really the overwhelming question is "What the fuck, you didn't notice that your boyfriend was your best friend, and also that your boyfriend was your old boyfriend who was your bestfriend."
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Fiend_85 wrote: »
    It's just, clearly Gemma has an issue of some kind. But really the overwhelming question is "What the fuck, you didn't notice that your boyfriend was your best friend, and also that your boyfriend was your old boyfriend who was your bestfriend."

    I wouldnt be surprised if they did. They both seemed pretty vulnerable, naive and desperate for love. Maybe they knew it was Gemma and carried on anyway?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm a minute in and lol.

    "I'm a normal 16 year old - I like Nandos" or whatever she said.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The whole thing just didn't seem real. 7 hours waiting for your boyfriend until 4am? :confused: and dating someone who never spoke and used their phone to type to you?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Im so glad about this thread, I just found the whole programme utterly insane!!! How could you fall for that twice, and go out with someone who wouldnt let you see his face or speak to you? Its clear those girls, especially jessica, were very naive and gullible, and probably just desperate for the whole romance/boyfriend thing as most teenage girls are.

    I especially loved that after all of it, she had found another boyfriend on facebook!! Did you not learn your lesson the first time?!

    Of course there is an element of what AR said but if i was her grandmother, she would not even know what facebook was anymore
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    a good while ago I saw that Jessica being interviewed on this morning about
    this whole case and she didn't come across daft, or silly, in fact I felt really sorry for her and thought what an absolute weirdo that Gemma must be.

    but after watching the documentary I couldn't believe the lengths of things she'd believed, like she believed 'connor' when he was saying that it wasn't him sexually assaulting her it was her ex 'luke' they were running off and swapping places?! I know at 14/15 you're naive and not very experienced but still? I thought it came across a bit like she was a bit slow.

    it kind of fascinates me how that Gemma thought she could get away with it though.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    And at the end of the programme with the quote from the judge stating that 'Gemma showed no emotion or remorse'.

    She'd just been diagnosed with ASD...perhaps that could explain it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Of course they said that. It's so much easier to demonise Gemma for what she did, especially as she's stuck in prison and has no right of reply. I still maintain she shouldn't be in prison and that her "victims" have learned a life lesson that any other girl who's been deceived by a lying boyfriend also gets to learn the hard way.

    I'm dead sympathetic me.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It would be like imprisoning me for convincing some daft bitch I'm kylie and then shagging her...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Lets not forget that she assaulted them while they begged her/him to stop. I think thats as good a reason as any to be in prison
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm still unsure of my view on this but all the girls involved including Gemma seem vulnerable. If Gemma did force herself on Jessica then she deserves to be punished.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Yes, that's true.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Lexi99 wrote: »
    Lets not forget that she assaulted them while they begged her/him to stop. I think thats as good a reason as any to be in prison

    That's not what the court decided, it was simply that they were underage. And she lied about her gender.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    A friend of mine pointed out her concerns about what this means for the transgender community. What happens if you don't disclose your sex change?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Do you think lying about your gender to gain sexual consent is a crime? It's a deception sure but I'm not sure it's a crime.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I dont mean about the lying about her gender thing, i just mean about the actual assault itself, no matter who she is or pretending to be.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    So did the court decide it was assualt, or just relations with a minor?

    I can't help but think that if it was just relations with a minor then the prison sentance is somewhat ott given the age gap.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    She had previously admitted two counts of sexual assault and one of fraud. The offences took place between November 23 2009 and May 10 2010.

    She received 30-month terms for the sexual assaults and three months for the fraud, the sentences to be concurrent.

    The judge said Barker's guilty pleas were "a complete reversal of the position you had held up until then", having previously used "persistent lies and denials".

    She had committed repeated sexual assaults - up to 20 on one girl, by pretending to be a boy, and perhaps half that number on the other girl, using two more male disguises.

    The fraud count related to her having tried to get compensation for having been assaulted and seriously injured by one of her fictitious characters, Luke Jones.

    from http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/woman-jailed-for-disguising-herself-as-boy-to-date-her-own-friends-3039528.html

    So I guess assault and fraud. Having a slow day but is it classed as assault because she deceived them into thinking she was a boy or was it assault because she forced herself on one of them?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think that's kind of the point. And I don't remember the private girl saying it was forced or anything...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Im assuming its purely because she forced herself on them - it has nothing to do with who she was dressed up as
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Lexi99 wrote: »
    Im assuming its purely because she forced herself on them - it has nothing to do with who she was dressed up as

    It was this bit that made me thought it: "She had committed repeated sexual assaults - up to 20 on one girl, by pretending to be a boy, and perhaps half that number on the other girl, using two more male disguises. "
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    It was sexual assault by pretending to be a boy. They consented to sexual touching with a boy, but of course she wasn't a boy.

    How that is very different to pretending to be in love/pretending there isn't a wife at home, I don't know.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The girl said she didnt consent to sexual touching with anybody. She said she didnt want to do anything sexual or have sex at all, and repeatedly asked for it to stop. I dont remember about the other girl but im pretty sure she too said she didnt want any of it to happen.
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