Friday's news in 5 minutes.

1. Woman who wore a prosthetic penis to trick girlfriend into having sex found guilty of sexual assault.

A 27-year-old woman in the UK has been found guilty of sexual assault after using a plastic penis to trick her online girlfriend into believing she was a man when they met in person.

Gayle Newland from Willaston, Cheshire faced the Manchester Crown Court yesterday and was reportedly sentenced to six and a half years in prison, with Judge David Stockdale commenting she had shown “an extraordinary degree of cunning and a chilling desire to manipulate”.

Newland had been posing as a male online and talking to her girlfriend – or unknowing victim – over a two year period. The court heard Newland created a “distrurbingly complex” persona to fulfill her “bizarre sexual satisfaction”, The Telegraph reports.

When the pair met in person – which happened on 15 separate occasions – Newland convinced the complainant to wear a blindfold. She then used a prosthetic penis to have sex with the victim, who told the court: “she has created a prison for the joyful persona I once had”.

Judge Stockdale said the deceit was “degrading” and “damaging” to the victim, telling Newland: “Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. The truth, the whole truth, here is as surprising as it is profoundly disturbing”.

Newland was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault, and was also jailed for defrauding her employer of £9,000 (AU$14,671) by creating fictional social media accounts.

If this post brings up any issues for you, please call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) – the national sexual assault, domestic and family violence counselling service.

2. NSW mother who allegedly killed her toddler claims she ‘talked to aliens’ and feared the “wolfman”.

The trial of a mother accused of murdering her young daughter continues, with the NSW court previously hearing she had talked about sacrificing a child to “wolfman” and wanted to be taken home by aliens, AAP reports.

The accused woman, 44, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to murdering her toddler between Christmas 2000 and Christmas 2001.

The prosecution argues the girl was born in 1999 and hasn’t been seen since Christmas the following year.

The Newcastle Supreme Court trial previously heard the mother talked of sacrificing a child to a “wolfman”.

Witness Michelle Hanlon said the woman talked about a wolfman who was after her and on one occasion disappeared for three days after taking the hallucinogenic drug LSD.

When she returned she was dishevelled and told Ms Hanlon she had walked through bushland to get to the top of a cliff to wait for aliens.

The accused woman claimed she had to go to the top of a hill to be taken home by aliens but, if the wolfman got there at the same time, she would have to sacrifice the child by slitting her throat.

If the wolfman didn’t show up the mother and her daughter could both go home with the aliens, her friend said in court.

But another witness, Jessie Ryan, said she had seen the accused woman and her daughter in about April 2000 and she was smiling, protective and a “great mum”.

3. A 14-year-old boy has been charged after two children were pricked by a syringe in supermarket.

Police have charged a teenager who is allegedly connected to hiding a syringe at a supermarket, which injured two children. #9News pic.twitter.com/HJWYQ1MHaC

— Nine News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) July 20, 2017

A 14-year-old boy has been charged after two children were pricked by a syringe at a Melbourne supermarket. It’s alleged the syringe was deliberately planted.

The first child pricked their finger on the syringe about 1.30pm on Monday. The syringe was hidden under a rail in the deli section of the Pascoe Vale Rd store in Broadmeadows.

Another child was pricked about an hour later. It is unknown whether the affected children required medical attention, or what condition the hidden syringe was in.

The teenager, from Coburg, was charged on Thursday night and bailed to appear at a children’s court on September 20 on two counts of recklessly causing injury.

A spokesperson for the supermarket said the store was working with police during the investigations.

4. IVF is being used in a bid to save the white rhino from extinction.

#Reuters UK zoo donates white rhino eggs in IVF bid to save species https://t.co/B1qwOd4qNf

— RealAnimalNews (@GoAnimalNSave) July 20, 2017

A British zoo is using IVF technology to help the three remaining northern white rhinos procreate and save the species from extinction, AAP reports.

Scientists at Longleat safari park in Warminster, England, extracted nine eggs from three female southern white rhinos in their facility earlier this week.

The eggs will be used by researchers at a clinic in Italy to develop IVF technology that eventually could be used with genetic material from the northern whites.

If scientists are unable to use IVF to create a pure northern white rhino, they have a back-up plan: to create and embryo using eggs from southern whites and sperm from a northern white to create a new hybrid species.

The southern white rhino is a sub-species that shares many of the characteristics of the northern white. While there are only three northern white rhinos left – all in captivity in Kenya – there are over 20,000 southern white rhinos, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Advanced age and fertility problems have meant that the three remaining northern whites have been unable to breed naturally.

5. Search resumes in Canada for missing Australian hiker Sophie Dowsley.

FRANTIC SEARCH: Grave concerns for missing Melbourne woman Sophie Dowsley, as her boyfriend is found dead #TenNews https://t.co/oQkM6fgZ8Y

— TEN Eyewitness News (@channeltennews) July 20, 2017

Canadian search and rescue teams have continued to scour the beautiful, but remote and treacherous, Statlu Lake area in search of missing Australian hiker Sophie Dowsley.

Grave fears are held for the 34-year-old from Melbourne after divers found Ms Dowsley’s Canadian boyfriend Greg Tiffin’s body in the lake, located about three hours’ drive east of Vancouver.

Mr Tiffin, a 44-year-old Canadian, and Ms Dowsley, 34, from Melbourne, set out for their day hike to Statlu Lake on July 8 and concerns were raised for their safety four days later.

The area’s trails are challenging for experienced hikers and the region has a history of deadly incidents.

The terrain is so rugged searchers, which include divers, dogs and specialists from Kent Harrison Search and Rescue, had to be flown in to the sites.

6. Experts from 9/11 have been called upon to help identify UK fire victims.

“You’ve let the dead down, now you want to come for the living?” #GrenfellTower victims call for council leader to stand down pic.twitter.com/rgkZCj7kTH

— Sky News (@SkyNews) July 20, 2017

London police trying to identify victims of the fire at the Grenfell Tower apartment building are getting help from experts who worked on the recovery of victims following the September 11 attacks, AAP reports.

Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey said the “extraordinary size” of the crime scene made it necessary to call upon experts who worked on the aftermath of the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York.

Mackey said on Thursday that Scotland Yard called on their American counterparts because of their experience in a “comparable” operation.

At least 80 people died in the blaze in the 24-story building in West London. The fire was sparked by a refrigerator in an apartment, but exterior cladding has been blamed for the quick spread of the flames.

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