Italian students who high-fived after raping woman in Soho club are jailed for more than seven years

A woman raped by two Italians who were caught sharing high fives after their vile attack on her in a Soho nightclub has slammed the students for treating her like ‘a badge of honour’.

Lorenzo Costanzo, 26, and Ferdinando Orlando, 25, had brazenly claimed they should face a lighter sentence as they are from a ‘different cultural background’, but were jailed for seven-and-a-half years today.

Both of them had met their drunk victim, 23, just eight minutes before they escorted her like a ‘rag doll’ through the club to a maintenance room and raped her. 

The pair had filmed the assault and went back into the club where they high-fived each other and hugged in celebration.

The two Masters students were seen on CCTV footage brazenly showing off the filmed rape to a friend, reenacting it, and celebrating with one another.

The victim, a schoolteacher, was found an hour later by a security guard in the toilet with ‘GBH level’ severe wounds.

Police checked 65 cameras and 100 hours of footage at The Toy Rooms in Soho, central London to track down the two men.

In a harrowing victim impact statement, the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, slammed the two students for showing a lack of remorse and treating her like ‘a badge of honour’.

She said: ‘She said: ‘I don’t remember a lot but I do remember being in incredible pain…I could barely walk from the pain.

‘When I was first told that the two suspects had been caught, it was like I had been violated all over again and I felt like I went into shock.

‘I had never considered for a minute that there had been more than one person that violated me so badly.

‘When I found out more than one man was so involved I felt violently ill with the thought that two men did something this horrible to me.

‘After the trial I became aware that whatever happened in that maintenance room that night was filmed on a phone by the two men.

‘I felt a whole mix of emotions from shock to sick to my stomach; anger and lastly, worry.

‘I learnt that they laughed and high-fived as they left the club – like they were proud of what they had just done. This again made me feel so angry and made me want to vomit.

‘I truly struggle with how two humans could behave like such animals to another person and think of that as funny and like a badge of honour. I have no control over who they have shown the footage or images to.

‘I did not consent to having sex with either or both of these people that night or at any other time.

‘I try to focus on the one small positive thing that I discovered out of all of this and that is how strong I have become as a person.

‘There have been huge challenges over the past two years for me and I constantly relive the small snippets I can remember from that night. It has greatly impacted my life in ways I never thought it would.

‘No person should feel like they are not safe when they are just out having fun with friends.

‘I pray that any other victims of such violent crimes now feel more confident to come forward. I have continued with this legal process and tried to stay strong because I believe such horrific assaults on women need to stop.

‘I hope that one day I will no longer feel like a victim and will feel proud of myself for staying so strong.’

Sarah Elliott, mitigation for Orlando, descried it as an ‘unusual case’ said the two men had a ‘naive understanding of consent’.

She said: ‘I would submit this naive understanding of consent is due to age, and perhaps cultural background.

‘There are very significant differences between Italian young men and their cultural background and those in England.’

Police said the two men escaped justice for more than a year by returning back to their home country of Italy.

They were eventually caught after Costanzo returned to the UK to watch an Arsenal versus Milan football match.

Following a trial, a jury found both men guilty of two counts of rape each.

Judge Giles Curtis-Raleigh sentenced Orlando and Costanzo to seven-and-a-half years in prison each at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday.

Sentencing the two men, the judge said they had committed ‘very serious offences’ against ‘an entirely innocent and vulnerable young woman’, saying ‘the impact on her life is profound’.

He said that as the defendants led the victim off the dance floor of the club to the maintenance room they were ‘clearly acting together’.

‘Each had sex with her both oral and vaginal at a time when she was incapable of consenting, you being aware of that,’ he added.

The judge noted that afterwards the pair exhibited ‘what was referred to as triumphalist behaviour’.

Commenting on the victim’s injuries, the judge highlighted that medical evidence in the trial ‘makes it clear that the doctors cannot say how that injury happened’ and as a result the defendants would not be sentenced on the basis they caused it.

The judge said the victim had suffered ‘very considerable psychological harm’ and noted that she had since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Police said nightclub CCTV footage from the night of the attack showed the defendants each kissing and dancing with the victim, who is visibly drunk and unsteady on her feet.

Propping her up, and just eight minutes after their first interaction, they lead her into the maintenance room, where there were no cameras, and she was raped.

Police and prosecutors argued the woman’s condition meant she was unable to consent to sex with the men.

About 16 minutes later the three re-emerged, with the defendants rearranging the victim’s clothing before they walk her to the female toilets and abandon her.

The two men ran outside and high-fived each other before watching back footage of the attack on a mobile phone, which they show to another person.

Police said they made lewd gestures and re-enacted to each other their actions during the rape.

Meanwhile the victim, who did not know her attackers, was left in the toilets for more than an hour before being found by club staff in severe pain.

She was helped home by a French couple, and a housemate called the ambulance service who alerted the police.

She was later taken to hospital for surgery for her injuries.

Police said the two men, who had girlfriends at the time, met each other in the UK while studying English in a language school in central London.

Costanzo left the UK just hours after the attack, with Orlando returning home about a week later.

Costanzo was arrested at Heathrow Airport in March 2018, while Orlando later contacted police and returned to the UK by appointment where he was arrested.

At trial, the two men admitted to watching the mobile phone video of the incident, but claimed they had consensual sex with the victim.

At an earlier hearing, Costanzo collapsed and was taken to hospital.

Police said that as Orlando’s guilty verdict came in, his co-defendant apparently fainted and hit his head on the glass courtroom dock ‘very loudly’ and was left on the floor ‘convulsing’.

Lawyers representing him in court took the verdict on Costanzo’s behalf.

Detective Sergeant Rebecca Woodsford, from the Metropolitan Police, said: ‘Both men put the victim through a traumatic ordeal.

‘She has been left with severe psychological injuries and was injured that night, which caused her and police to suspect she had been a victim of assault, she was not aware until the defence put their case to her in court, the full extent of what had happened in that maintenance room.’

A spokesman for the Toy Room nightclub said: ‘We’re appalled by this incident, and our thoughts go out to the victim.

‘The safety of our guests is our top priority, and we’ve done everything we can to co-operate fully with the police, to help them bring this case to trial and ensure a conviction.’