A woman posed as a man so she could have sex with another woman, a court heard today.
Blade Silvano is accused of using an unknown object to have “sex” during the relationship and even proposing marriage. The “sophisticated deception” led her to pretend to be an army officer, send photos of herself “shave” and never walk around naked.
The 40-year-old allegedly met her victim through an online dating site where she described herself as a man looking for a woman.
His alleged victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, only discovered her lover’s true gender by chance on Facebook.
She told police in an interview: ‘She refused me the right to consent. Everyone has the right to know who they have sex with and who they have sex with.
“I consented to have sex with a man, not a woman. I did not consent to have sex with a woman who was penetrating me with something.
Blade Silvano, 40, is accused of sexually assaulting the woman she met on the internet, where she allegedly claimed to be a man looking for a female partner
Blade Silvano, pictured in a 2016 Market Times article, denies two counts of assault by penetration
The pair met via dating site Plenty of Fish, Cambridge Crown Court heard, with the plaintiff approaching Silvano – who is said to have used the name Blade Mendez – “because his picture was a bit different from all the other photos”.
She told police: ‘It was a photo of Blade himself with a quirky haircut and him pointing at his hair. That’s what I found different from others.
Prosecutor Michael Hillman said they first met in December 2016 and kissed before having sex at a later meeting.
They did not see each other for some time after that, as the defendant claimed he “was trampled by a cow” while on duty. Silvano had never been in the military, the jury was told.
The accused claimed to have been discharged from hospital in February 2017, Mr Hillman said, and the couple reunited for sex.
They planned to wed in December that year, but it was postponed when Silvano, from Lydham, Shropshire, reportedly said he was suffering from an illness.
It wasn’t until September of the following year that the complainant synced her contacts for a new Facebook account and the accused appeared with a “different last name than I know”.
The complainant told police in an interview that she had “not consented” to having sex with a woman, reports the BBC. Pictured: Blade Silvano outside Cambridge Crown Court
During her interview with the police, the woman added: ‘There was nothing abnormal at all. He was very fluid when he moved. He was neither timid nor shy. I didn’t feel like a woman next to me.
His partner’s chest ‘looked flat’ and he was ‘walking around in his t-shirt and boxers’.
She added: “All the conversations we had, the pictures of him shaving and his stories – he always said he was a man.”
In cross-examination yesterday, she denied being bisexual when they met and refuted claims that she participated in a ‘fantasy’ on purpose.
Debra White, defending, said the couple talked about marriage when they had only met on “a few occasions” and asked why the complainant sent photos of herself having sex. try on a wedding dress “while it is traditional that the [other] no one sees him until the morning of the wedding”.
“The reason you sent the photo is that there would never be a wedding, right?” ” she asked.
The woman replied that it was “incorrect”, adding that the defendant had raised the subject of marriage with her.
Mr Hillman told the court that the alleged victim ‘obviously believed she was communicating with a male’ and that Silvano ‘unfortunately engaged in a sophisticated deception’.
The defendant, who at the time ran a cafe in a Victorian town hall in Welshpool, Powys, denies two charges of assault by penetration.
She claims she has never met the complainant, insists her “gender was never brought up in conversation” and denies using the Mendez surname.
The trial continues.