I've only just come across this case but it seems worth discussing in the context of trans rights/feminism.
This is another case, like Gayle Newland, Georgia Bilham, Gemma Barker, Justine McNally, Chris/tine Wilson and several others where a female (assigned at birth) person has been convicted of sexual assault by presenting themself as a man/boy. In almost all of these cases, the defence presented was that the victim knew that the person was female (assigned at birth).
What is particularly interesting about the Silvano case, where the two instances of sexual assault were over a year prior to the end of the relationship, is that Silvano defence is that she has never met the victim, contesting that this was an online only relationship.
Although I do believe there was a case where a man was convicted of sexual assault against another man after impersonating a woman, I cannot find any cases where a man has been convicted of a sexual offence against a woman by impersonating a woman, and there are numerous stories of women who have had relationships, and even married, male (assigned at birth) people who have later identified themselves to be women and even later gone on to get GRCs, yet there have been no convictions for deception.
While I'm in no way defending female people who sexually assault others by deception, this does seem to be a serious case of female people being treated very differently. If we go with the mantra of "trans women are women", there must be a whole load of trans women who have duped unsuspecting female partners by fraudulently presenting as men, yet not a single conviction.
Is this benevolent transphobia?