A woman was tricked into having sex during a two-year relationship with another woman who was pretending to be a man, a court heard.
The victim, who can’t be named for legal reasons, claimed she had ‘sexual intercourse’ twice with the ‘man’ and had even planned to marry ‘him’.
Blade Silvano, 40, has been accused of a ‘sophisticated’ scam by tricking the woman into believing she was male.
Prosecutors said the pair met online in late 2016 when Silvano had posted her status on Plenty of Fish as a ‘man looking for a woman’ and matched with the victim. Metro reports.
They first met in person in December that year and ‘kissed’ before going on to have ‘intercourse’ on two separate occasions, the jury was told.
But Michael Hillman, for the prosecution, said Silvano continued to hide her true identity by using an ‘unknown item’ to penetrate and always kept her t-shirt on and boxers on.
The shocked victim only discovered her ‘lover’s’ true gender through Facebook nearly two years later after they had postponed a planned wedding due to the defendant’s supposed ‘illness’, the trial heard.
Silvano, of Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, is on trial at Cambridge Crown Court and denies two counts of assault by penetration.
Giving evidence today, the complainant said the defendant had used the name Blade Mendez and told cops she had never consented to having a sexual relationship with a woman.
During cross examination, the alleged victim denied the whole relationship had all been part of a ‘roleplay’ and ‘fantasy’ between them.
She also referred to Silvano throughout her testimony as a ‘he’ and added: ‘I’ve only known Blade as a man.’
The victim denied claims put to her by defence barrister Debra White that she had never met the defendant ‘in the flesh’ and told the court their relationship had felt ‘real’.
She denied she had identified herself as ‘bisexual’ on her profile or that she had any sexual interest in women at the time.
Ms White asked her: ‘Did you tell her your sexual fantasy was to have sex with a woman?’ and she responded with ‘no’.
The victim said the majority of their communication was via WhatsApp messages but they had also exchanged video calls.
The court heard on one occasion they had been due to go to an ‘officer’s dinner’ together but Silvano pulled out after telling her she had been ‘injured by a cow’.
The trial also heard details of their wedding preparations, which the defence again argued was all part of their roleplay.
Ms White added: ‘During your relationship, you told police there was talk of marriage.
‘You were making arrangements to marry someone that you say you had only seen on a handful of occasions?’
The alleged victim responded: ‘It was Blade that asked me to marry him. Based on him asking me we made arrangements.
‘The trial heard she had even gone to try on a wedding dress and sent a photo of it to Silvano.
Ms White added: ‘Isn’t it tradition that the person you are going to marry – they don’t see the dress until the morning of the wedding?
‘The reason you sent that photo was there was never going to be a wedding. The reason was all part and parcel of this roleplay between you and Ms Silvano.
‘Did you begin to believe this roleplay was real?’ The witness responded: ‘It was not a roleplay.’
According to Metro, the court heard she only discovered Silvano’s true identity in September 2018 when her contacts synced on a new Facebook account and came up with a different surname for the defendant.
The alleged victim said she thought she was having full sexual intercourse with the defendant on a number of occasions – but was always ‘rebuffed’ when she tried to touch ‘his’ genitalia.
During her initial police interview, she said: ‘When we had sex, Blade would usually blindfold me and I was never allowed to look at the penetration occurring.
‘He would never allow me to go near his genital region and I never saw his penis.’
Giving evidence today, she ‘clarified’ to the jury he had only blindfolded her once.
The alleged victim said that during sexual contact they used sex toys that were kept in her bedroom drawer but said this was only ‘in-between us having sex.’
She had also told cops in her statement: ‘He didn’t tell me he was female but he penetrated me with something – and I haven’t consented to it.’
She added: ‘He kept his clothes on, he blindfolded me. Nothing felt unnatural.’
The trial heard the alleged victim and Silvano had also exchanged sexual messages and pictures and Silvano had asked the alleged victim to ‘name one of her dildos after her.’
Ms White asked her: ‘Are you suggesting that during all of those times you had intimate sexual face to face physical contact with Blade Silvano that you did not suspect that Blade Silvano was a woman?’She responded: ‘Exactly that.’
She denied that she was only in an ‘electronic relationship’ and it was finding out the defendant was already in another relationship that caused her to go to the police as an act of ‘revenge.’
She also told the court, the defendant she saw in court today was very different to the one she knew six years ago.
She added: ‘The person I knew six years ago had shorter hair, wore more masculine clothing. Her breasts were not evident as they are now.
‘He is the same physical shape but the breasts were not evident.’
The trial, listed for five days, continues.
