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A woman who posed as a man so that she could have sex with another woman told her victim she had cancer and never let her near ‘his’ private parts, a court heard today.
Blade Silvano, 40, is accused of using an unknown object to have ‘intercourse’ during the relationship and even proposed marriage. The ‘sophisticated deception’ involved her claiming to be an Army officer, sending photos of herself ‘shaving’, and never walking around naked.
The alleged victim told Cambridge Crown Court that Silvano would discuss the cancer treatment ‘he’ was having.
Asked about intimacy between them, she said she had never seen ‘his’ private parts, adding: ‘He would never allow me to go near his genital region.’
She had been expecting to go to an officers’ ball in December 2016 with Silvano, who claimed to be a vet in the Army, but this was called off after ‘he’ told her about being trampled by a cow.
Blade Silvano, 40, is accused of sexually assaulting the woman she met on the internet, where she allegedly claimed to be male looking for a female partner
‘He sent me a picture of his leg elevated on a sofa at his house,’ the woman told the jury.
‘He said because it was the weekend they [doctors] couldn’t do anything further but he’d be going back to hospital to have a small operation to rectify what the cow had done.’ Silvano had never been in the Army, the jury was told.
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, who can’t be named for legal reasons, only discovered her lover’s true sex by chance on Facebook.
She told police in an interview: ‘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 have sex with a male, not a female. I did not consent to have sex with a female who was penetrating me with something.’
Debra White, defending, suggested Silvano had never been to the woman’s house and all communication had been via mobile devices.
‘Had you met in the flesh, you would have known that Blade Silvano was a woman,’ she said.
Blade Silvano, pictured in a Market Times article from 2016, denies two counts of assault by penetration
The complainant replied: ‘That is incorrect. I’ve only known Blade as a man.’
The court heard that the woman eventually learned that Silvano had a partner. At the time the partner had a business selling witchcraft and goth items at a market in a Victorian town hall, where Silvano ran a café.
The woman denied seeking revenge on Silvano after discovering she was already in a relationship.
However, she sent an angry WhatsApp message to the defendant, which was read out in court.
It said: ‘You clearly have been leading me on and have some serious issues. I hope the woman in your life figures you out.
‘I deserve to be someone’s only. My boys deserve better than this rubbish. You have messed up – getting someone to go wedding dress shopping, getting me to think you were seriously ill…
‘All I wanted was a loyal, honest man. It’s obvious you like to play with hearts and minds. Clearly you have psychological issues to do this for two years.’
The woman said her last contact with Silvano was in October 2018, when she messaged her to ask if her partner would stop ‘contacting my family’.
Asked if the person sitting in the dock had changed over the past six years, she told the court: ‘The person I knew six years ago had much shorter hair and more masculine clothing. Her breasts were not evident. They are now.’
The complainant told police in an interview that she did ‘not consent to’ having a sexual relationship with a woman, the BBC reports. Pictured: Blade Silvano outside Cambridge Crown Court
The pair met through dating website Plenty of Fish, Cambridge Crown Court heard, with the complainant approaching Silvano – who was allegedly using the name Blade Mendez – ‘because his picture was a little bit different to all the other pictures’.
She told police: ‘It was a photo of Blade himself with a quirky haircut and him pointing towards his hair. That’s what I found different to other people.’
Prosecutor Michael Hillman said they first met up in December 2016 and they kissed, before having sex at a subsequent meeting.
They didn’t see each other for a while after that as the defendant claimed ‘he’d been trampled on by a cow’ while on duty. Silvano had never been in the Army, the jury was told.
The defendant claimed to have been discharged from hospital in February 2017, Mr Hillman said, and the pair met up again for sex.
They planned to marry in December that year but this was postponed when Silvano, of Lydham, Shropshire, allegedly said he was suffering from an illness.
It was only in September the following year that the complainant synced her contacts for a new Facebook account and the defendant appeared with a ‘different surname to the one that I’m aware of’.
In her police interview, the woman added: ‘There was nothing unnatural whatsoever. He was very fluid when he moved. He wasn’t shy or timid. It did not feel like a woman next to me.’
Her partner’s chest ‘looked flat’ and he ‘walked around in his T-shirt and boxers’.
She added: ‘All the conversations we had, to pictures of him shaving and his stories – he always stated he was male.’
Under cross-examination yesterday, she denied being bisexual when they met and refuted claims she had been a willing participant in a ‘fantasy’.
Debra White, defending, said the couple had talked of marriage despite only meeting on a ‘handful of occasions’ and questioned why the complainant had sent photos of herself trying on a wedding dress ‘when it’s tradition that the [other] person doesn’t see it until the morning of the wedding’.
‘The reason you sent the photo was because there was never going to be a wedding, was there?’ she asked.
The woman replied that was ‘incorrect’, adding the defendant had raised the subject of marriage with her.
Mr Hillman told the court the alleged victim ‘obviously believed she was communicating with a male’ and Silvano ‘regrettably embarked on a sophisticated deception’.
The defendant, who at the time was running a café in a Victorian town hall in Welshpool, Powys, denies two charges of assault by penetration.
She claims never to have met the complainant, insists her ‘gender had never come up in conversation’ and denies using the surname Mendez.
The trial continues.
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