Woman who pretended to be a man and duped partner into sex is jailed

A woman has been sentenced to 10 and a half years in jail for sexual assault after pretending to be a man to dupe a woman into sex using a blindfold, a sex toy, and a “wholly fake persona”.

- Helen Pidd

Blade Silvano, 41, met the victim, a mother of small children, on the online dating site Plenty of Fish in November 2016 and they got engaged as man and woman, Cambridge crown court heard.

She was found guilty in May of two counts of assault by penetration, and was sentenced yesterday for what the judge insisted was not a case of “gender dysphoria” or “anyone’s sexuality”, but about “deception, skilfully carried out and maliciously maintained”.

Using a fake name, Blade Mendez, Silvano presented herself as a man throughout a two-year relationship with the victim. She would send the victim photos of herself shaving her face and would pretend to urinate standing up.

When she and the complainant were intimate, in December 2016 and February 2017, Silvano refused to be seen naked, wearing a long-sleeved top and pulling her jeans down only slightly, before turning away to pretend to put on a condom, Mr Justice Philip Grey said yesterday.