A TikTok and Instagram influencer with two young children has told of her horror after discovering the woman she had begun dating is a convicted sex offender.
Ashleigh Huish, 35, who revels in her plus size body, has 440,000 followers on her @ashslifestories Instagram and 1.3m on TikTok.
She had started dating a new girlfriend called ‘Gee’ recently – unaware that the woman is in fact Gayle Newland who was at the centre of a notorious sexual assault and exploitation case. Huish has now dumped Newland after learning of her criminal past.
Newland, 34, was convicted of a string of sexual assaults in 2017 after using a £20 prosthetic penis sex toy and blindfold to con a student into believing she was having sex with a man.
The former personal trainer pretended to be a half-Filipino half-Latino man named Kye Fortune and wore a fake penis to have sex up to ten times with the young woman over two years.
Gayle Newland (left) is led away after she was convicted in 2015. She was in a relationship with Ashleigh Huish (right)
Ashleigh Huish (left), 35, has been in a relationship with Gayle Newland who was at the centre of a notorious sexual assault case in 2017
Gayle Newland, 34, made national headlines when she was convicted of a string of sexual assaults in 2017
This ‘astonishing deception’ was to quench her own ‘bizarre sexual satisfaction’, Manchester Crown Court heard.
It’s believed that Huish met Newland late last year and briefly became romantically involved with her – until followers alerted her to Newland’s criminal past.
Earlier this week, Huish, posted that she had been ‘devasted’ by her discovery of Newland’s deception and said she was suspending her social media.
Mother-of-two Huish, from St Albans, Herts, then posted a statement to fans, saying: ‘Sometimes people come into our life who don’t want their personal lives on social media, and I respect that so when I did eventually start dating again, I didn’t share any details at their request. However, I’d like to note, I am single and have been for some time.
‘In more recent days, I’ve been alerted to a website sharing information about this person’s past. Information that I had no knowledge of to any degree.
‘I went into the dating world again with an open heart and I never expected for this to occur and I’m honestly devastated.’
She added: ‘I hope anyone who knows or supports me would be aware that I’m a very open book about my life.’
She then concluded: ‘This doesn’t just affect me, but my family too, so I will be taking some time offline to reflect – Ash’.
Huish had introduced Newland to fans as simply ‘Gee’, but some fans worked out that she was Gayle Newland.
During her trial former private schoolgirl Newland broke down in the dock and screamed ‘I can’t go back to jail’ when a jury found her guilty of the sexual assaults on a young student.
She had already been given an eight-year prison sentence in 2015, but the conviction was quashed and a retrial ordered following criticism of the judge’s summing up in the first case.
In the second trial, her legal team chose to focus more on the sexual history of her victim who slept with up to 19 men in the period after she went to police in 2013.
But second time around, she was sentenced to six years for the sexual assaults and six months for fraud, to run consecutively.
Newland, of Willaston, Cheshire, created a ‘disturbingly complex’ online persona to achieve her own ‘bizarre sexual satisfaction’, carrying on the deceit for more than two years, the court heard.
One of Ashleigh Huish’s major sponsors, clothing brand In The Style, has now dropped her
Ashleigh Huish has 440,000 followers on her @ashslifestories Instagram and 1.3m on TikTok
Over a two year period, Newland developed an online relationship with the victim, also in her 20s, under the name Kye Fortune.
She lowered her voice when they spoke on the phone and used pictures of an American man on her Facebook page to give ‘Kye’ a physical identity.
And when the pair eventually met up, Newland told the victim to wear a blindfold because she was insecure about her appearance.
The victim only discovered she was having sex with Newland, and not her boyfriend ‘Kye’, when she took off the mask during one of their 15 sexual encounters.
Sentencing Newland, Judge David Stockdale QC said the offences demonstrated ‘an extraordinary degree of cunning and a chilling desire to manipulate and control the lives of others’.
Newland was ordered to remain on the sex offender’s register for life and is also subject to a lifelong sexual harm prevention order.
During sentencing remarks, the judge said: “The jury by a majority of 11-1 found you guilty of counts one, two and three on the indictment, all three were sexual assaults by penetration.
‘She did not consent to these invasive acts of penetration because her willing compliance with your abusive behaviour was obtained by a deceit.
‘This was a deceit of such subtlety and cunning in its planning, and was a deceit from your point of view so successful in its execution, that an outsider to this case might find the facts difficult to comprehend.’
contacted Huish, her agent, and In the Style.
A spokesperson for Lovehoney confirmed to that they had worked with her as a content creator on different occasions to promote various products.
Somewhat ironically, given Newland’s (left) crimes, mother-of-two Huish, from Harlow, Essex, has recently promoted sex toys online
They added: ‘We take our brand associations very seriously and undertake due diligence before working with any individual person or entity.
‘Since learning of the rumours – which originate from a gossip site – we have been in touch with Ashleigh Huish and her management, who confirmed to us that Ash is not in a relationship with the person she is accused of being with, and knew nothing of the allegations.’
has recently promoted sex toys for online adult brand giant LoveHoney, as well as being associated with In the Style, a clothing fast fashion retailer.
Agents for Ms Huish didn’t respond.
It’s unclear where Newland is now.