Cafe manager ‘posed as man to have sex with woman’

A CAFE boss posed as a man so that she could have sex with another woman, a court heard.

Blade Silvano is accused of using an unknown object to have ‘intercourse’ and even proposing marriage. The ‘sophisticated deception’ involved her claiming to be an Army officer and sending photos of herself ‘shaving’, a jury was told yesterday.

Silvano, 40, is said to have met the woman on dating website Plenty Of Fish. Her alleged victim told police: ‘I consented to have sex with a male, not a female.’

The prosecution said they first met in 2016 and had planned to marry in December 2017. This was postponed when Silvano – who the court heard was using the name Blade Mendez – allegedly said she had cancer.

In September 2018 the complainant synced her contacts for a Facebook account and the defendant appeared with a ‘dif

‘Gender had never come up’

ferent surname’. Under crossexamination at Cambridge Crown Court, she denied being a willing participant in a ‘fantasy’.

Asked about intimacy between them, she said she had never seen Silvano’s private parts.

Debra White, defending, suggested all communication was via mobile devices. ‘Had you met... you would have known Blade Silvano was a woman,’ she said. The complainant replied: ‘That is incorrect. I’ve only known Blade as a man.’

The court heard the woman eventually learned Silvano had a partner called Jan, but denied seeking revenge. Silvano, of Lydham, Shropshire, who ran a cafe in Welshpool, Powys, denies two charges of assault by penetration, claims never to have met the complainant and insists her ‘gender had never come up’.

She also denies using the name Mendez. The trial continues.