Cafe boss ‘pretending to be a man to lure a woman into having sex with her’

A woman posed as a man to have sex with another woman, a court heard today.

Blade Silvano is accused of using an unknown object for “intercourse” during the relationship and even the marriage proposal. The “sophisticated deception” consisted of her claiming to be an army officer, sending photos of herself “shaving” and never going around naked.

The 40-year-old is said to have met her victim through an online dating site, where she described herself as a man looking for a woman.

Her alleged victim, whose name cannot be given for legal reasons, only found out the true sex of her lover by accident on Facebook.

In an interview, she told police, “She denied me the right to consent.” Everyone has the right to know who they are having sex with and what they are having sex with.

“I consented to having sex with a man, not a woman.” “I did not consent to having sex with a woman who would penetrate me with something.”

The couple met through dating site Plenty of Fish, Cambridge Crown Court heard, with the complainant reaching out to Silvano – who allegedly used the name Blade Mendez – “because his picture was a little different from all the other pictures.” .

She told police, “There was a photo of Blade himself with a weird haircut, pointing at his hair. That’s what I found different from other people.”

Prosecutor Michael Hillman said they first met in December 2016 and kissed before having sex at a subsequent meeting.

After that, they did not see each other for a while, as the accused claimed “he was trampled by a cow while on duty”. The jury was told that Silvano had never been in the army.

The defendant claimed to have been discharged from hospital in February 2017, Mr Hillman said, and the couple met again for sex.

They had planned to marry in December this year but this was postponed when Silvano, from Lydham, Shropshire, reportedly said he was suffering from an illness.

It was only in September of the following year that the complainant synchronized her contacts for a new Facebook account and the defendant appeared with a “different surname than the one I know”.

In her police interview, the woman added, “There was nothing unnatural about it.” He was very fluid when moving. He was neither shy nor shy. “It didn’t feel like a woman next to me.”

Her partner’s chest “looked flat” and he was “walking around in his t-shirt and boxers.”

She added, “Every conversation we had, right down to the pictures of him shaving and his stories – he always stated that he was male.”

In cross-examination yesterday, she denied having been bisexual when they met and refuted claims she was willingly taken part in a “fantasy”.

Debra White, who defended herself, said the couple had discussed the marriage even though they only met “on a few occasions” and questioned why the complainant had sent photos of herself trying on a wedding dress “despite it being traditional , that this …” [other] “The person doesn’t see it until the morning of the wedding.”

“The reason you sent the photo was because there would never be a wedding, right?” she asked.

The woman replied that that was “wrong,” adding that the defendant raised the issue of marriage with her.

Mr Hillman told the court the alleged victim “apparently believed he was communicating with a man” and that Silvano “regrettably engaged in a sophisticated deception”.

The defendant, who at the time ran a cafe in a Victorian town hall in Welshpool, Powys, denies two allegations of assault.

She claims that she never met the applicant, insists that “her gender was never mentioned in the conversation” and denies the use of the surname Mendez.

The process goes on.