'Gifted con artist' jailed for duping woman she met on Plenty of Fish into relationship by pretending to be male convicted of near-identical deception

A ‘gifted con artist’ jailed for duping a woman into a two-year sexual relationship by pretending to be a man has been convicted of a near-identical deception.Blade Silvano, 44, was jailed for more than ten years in 2023 after setting up a fake dating profile on Plenty of Fish before using ‘deceit and lies’ to convince her victim she was a man.The former café owner – who falsely claimed to be an Army officer – concealed her lower body with a large T-shirt, had sex using a strap-on sex device, and sent pictures of herself appearing to wet shave.The couple were only intimate in the dark.Today she was found guilty of further offences against a second woman who she also tricked into a sexual relationship by posing as a man on Plenty of Fish.Silvano, who is still serving her first sentence at Peterborough Prison, was convicted of six counts of sexual assault by penetration between November 2022 and the following June.Posing as ‘Hunter’, she tricked the woman into meeting up for sex in Liverpool after striking up conversation online, Caernarfon Crown Court heard.However she would insist on the lights being switched off or kept low, and 'Hunter' would reject her offer of oral sex and instead go straight to the bathroom afterwards, the trial heard. Blade Silvano, 44, pictured arriving at court during her first trial in 2023, posed as a man called Hunter and starting an intimate relationship in a 'cruel con' against a female victim Silvano is currently in jail after being convicted duping another woman into a two-year sexual relationship by pretending to be a manOn one occasion 'Hunter' – who claimed to be a captain and surgeon in the Army – allegedly claimed 'his' condom had broken during sex.But 'he' was said to have assured the alleged victim it was 'very unlikely' she would get pregnant, adding: 'Trust me, I'm a doctor.'Despite noticing her lover sounded a 'little feminine', she 'never thought this was anything other than a man', prosecuting counsel Philip Clemo said.That was until the 'bombshell' revelation when the alleged victim was contacted by her lover's 'wife' and discovered 'Hunter' was actually a woman, he said.She told police during video interviews that she 'felt sick' when she learned Silvano was a woman, saying: 'I thought it was some sort of joke.'She recalled thinking during the relationship 'I have never felt a d**k like that,' adding: 'I don't know what was used.'Silvano allegedly wouldn't let her touch 'his' groin during their relationship, claiming it was 'sensitive', and wanted them to move in together.Giving evidence last week, Silvano accepted she had never served in the Army.But she claimed that she ‘didn’t portray to be a male’ on Plenty of Fish, insisting that the woman ‘knew I was female.’She told her counsel, James McCrindell, that she had been a lecturer at a Cambridge college and was a doctor of philosophy, an expert in ancient Greek.Cross-examined by Mr Clemo, Silvano denied that Greek myths such as Zeus turning into a bull to seduce were ‘something of an inspiration’ to her.He suggested she was a ‘gifted con artist’ and said she was ‘talented at this’, adding: ‘It’s a wicked thing to be talented at.’Today jurors took just five hours to convict her on all counts.Afterwards Judge Nicola Jones told them Silvano was already serving a prison sentence.She will be sentenced for the latest offences next month.In the previous case, Silvano was found guilty of two counts of assault by penetration in 2023. She was jailed for ten-and-a-half years and placed on the sex offenders register indefinitely.During the trial at Cambridge Crown Court, the jury heard how the couple first met up in December 2016 and kissed before going on to have 'intercourse'.Giving evidence, the victim, who referred to Silvano as a 'he' throughout her evidence, said she thought she was having sex with a man called Blade Mendez – and had never consented to intimacy with a female.