The girl who became three boys on C4?

[noelstudios]

Anyone watching? Jessica Sawyer is a lovely girl. Very sweet, and hilarious!

It struck me that Jessica must have had shockingly low self esteem to put up with the 'relationship' she thought they had with these boys. A boy whose face she never saw, who never spoke to her but only grunted and typed out text messages, who kept her waiting outside his house for 7 hours. Contrast that with her fb statuses with all the "I love my boyfriend! Nothing and no-one will ever split us up!" I'm guessing she was desperate to just have a boyfriend and put up with all sorts of crap to have one.

I thought poor Jessica was a sweetie - yes the story was badly told and she was clearly very naive, but so are lots of 15 year olds.... I loved how at the end she seems to be able to wipe the slate clean and move on without a backwards glance

I did feel at Jessicas' grandmother though - why did she allow a boy who she said she thought seemed strange and had never met before, sleep in her daughters bed overnight? That just didn't make sense.

I just can't get this programme out of my mind .

It reminds me of that awful traffic cops clip where 2 girls kept ( twins I think ? ) were hurling themselves under lorries on a motorway .

Because it's so sad and so bizarre ...

It doesn't add up at all to me. They must have known.

I know ,I can't believe that Alice and Jess had no idea .

One of their school friends said she pointed out to them how odd it was that all 3 of the "boys" lived on a very expensive estate ,where famous people like Cliff Richards lived .

I think they suspected something and when it all went too far they dropped Gemma in it .

And I don't really think it was a good idea for Jess to appear so publicly in this documentary .

If I was her grandmother I wouldn't have encouraged her to be so public about it, what with the newspaper articles and telly stuff. Any time someone googles her for the rest of her life that will be the first thing that pops up.

I can see why they didn't necessarily think it was their friend. She obviously went to great lengths to think of cover stories etc., and they said that when this was going on Gemma "backed off" from their friendship with excuses that she was busy with a new job. So it's not like they were seeing her in the afternoon, then the boys 3 hours later when Gemma was still fresh in their minds. Also most of the relationship with the boys was played out over facebook and msn. The thing that would make me curious would be the lack of photos on facebook, and no-one tagging them in pictures. But who took the pics of her dressed as a boy in the first place? That's a bit weird.

Also- if you want to believe something badly enough all the clues in the world aren't going to make you think otherwise. That's a big part in it.

But not speaking and expecting your girlfriend to read texts on your phone instead ?
While she's sitting next to you ?
Surely anyone would find that strange ?
I suppose they thought it was a bit of a game ?

I watched this and I didn't think Jessica Sawyer was/is in full posession of all her faculties to me honest. There was a bit at the end where she babbled on a load of nonsense to the friend with children and you could clearly see she was talking absolute bollox. I wonder what the facts in court actually were because many of them seemed to make little sense on the programme.

Teenage boys in general are weird and teenage girls are often keen to excuse said weirdness, especially if they like a fella. And only one of the "persona's" used the phone thing, so they wouldn't have necessarily linked it to the others anyway.

Why did she do it though? That was never really explained....strange story!

I know what you mean fanjo ,Jess was still talking about the boyfriend as if he were real .

Apparently Gemma suffers from autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Not that this excuses sexual assault in any way.

well I think they knew based on what I saw last night. They must have. Especially the one that 'went out' with her disguised as 2 different boys.

I think sometimes people see what they want to see. Gemma played into this.

It does seem odd though. How could they not even be suspicious? Why did the grandmother let him stay over in the same bed?

And what 15 year old is that adament about being disrespectful that her GM was in the house? She does seem a sweet girl but some of her reactions to the sexual activity did seem a bit fictional.

That said, Gemma did admit to it and they were assaulted. Maybe its their way of coming to terms with that to be so public. Like if they tell the world what she did it will further confirm in their own minds that it shouldnt have happened and wasnt their fault.

Still very odd though.

Like if they tell the world what she did it will further confirm in their own minds that it shouldnt have happened and wasnt their fault.

yes I'd go with that ,makes sense to me .

who did Gemma live with? I didn't feel the program covered half of it! someone was funding her to stay off college doing all this surely?

Some on line stuff I looked at showed her leaving a house with her mother ,on the day she was going to court to be sentenced .

I was watching this with my eldest teen daughter and she was baffled and horrified that girls are so gullible , they didnt deserve it though but how could they not know,

I'm actually speechless after watching that. Jessica was still talking as if Cona was real " he just disappeared of the face of the earth". WTF?

I found the whole situation bizarre. The part that I really didn't like was when Jess made out that what happened to her was so much worse than what happened to Alice because she said 'No' whereas Alice consented to everything that happened to her. Not really, no. And why dumb down one person's experience to make your own seem worse? It's not a competition ffs.

It raised more questions than it answered IMO. I felt a bit cheated.

Also Jess said that she in bed with him/her and screaming at him/ her to stop, why did her gran not hear this?
It's too bloody odd for my mind

I did wonder why the granny didn't hear her screaming as well. It's the most bizarre program I've seen in a long while.

Does anyone remember a similar documentary on channel 4 in the last year? It was also something to do with someone being taken in online and they kept doing that typey thing in the background. I remember them interviewing the mum while she was gardening...I think she was an alcoholic? It's really annoying me!