Two post graduate students were caught on CCTV laughing and exchanging high-fives after raping a “ten out of ten drunk” young woman in a nightclub maintenance room, a court heard today.
Just six minutes after the 25-year-old woman met Ferdinando Orlando, 25, and Lorenzo Costanzo, 26, at the Toy Room Club under the London Palladium they were having sex in the side room near the toilets, the jury were told.
Orlando, of St George’s Square, Pimlico, is currently studying a post-graduate degree in International Law and Costanzo is taking a post-graduate masters degree in Business & Management.
Both have pleaded not guilty to two counts of raping the petite woman in the early hours of February 26 2017, insisting she consented after swapping kisses with them on the dance floor.
(Image: Square Miles News)
Prosecutor Allison Hunter QC told the Isleworth Crown Court jury the nightclub CCTV will show the three meeting: “They can be seen to pass her from one to the other, each of them taking it in turns to kiss her.”
Orlando then leads the woman to the maintenance room as she holds onto his waist, with Costanzo behind, steering her as she leans into him, the court heard.
“I was in the middle of them so it was hard to get away from them,” the woman told the jury. “They were the support for me walking.”
All three emerge sixteen minutes later, with the woman sandwiched between the defendants. “Orlando can be seen to re-arrange her dress, which was twisted and raised at the front, to cover her modesty,” said the prosecutor.
“The pair propel her towards the ladies’ toilet, where they open the door and put her inside and turn and run down the corridor.
“They ran straight up the stairs to the outside, where they can be seen hugging, high-fiving each other, strong arming, laughing and looking at what appear to be images or videos on a mobile phone.
“They engage in gestures simulating sexual intercourse and oral intercourse and appear to laugh and congratulate each other.
“It is the prosecution case that she was not able to consent to what she sustained at the will of these two defendants,” added Ms Hunter.
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“Her capacity to consent was a matter of supreme indifference and irrelevance to them in their pursuit of their own sexual gratification.”
The complainant told the jury she has no memory of the incident, having begun drinking unlimited prosecco at 11am, plus free shots and vodka at the club, where she was celebrating a girl friend’s birthday.
“I remember being very drunk and falling over a lot and then I was in the toilets of the club in so much pain, not wanting to get out and then I remember being on the street, sitting on the sidewalk.”
After a French couple helped her home to Ealing the woman was taken to hospital for an injury between her legs. “I was very swollen down there and bruised,” she said.
“I was very swollen, I could barely walk and there was a lot of bruising. I was very scared.”
As well as the painful swelling doctors also noted three bruises between her legs, bruising to her bum, shoulder and leg, plus a mystery love bite to her neck she had no recollection of.
She told police on a one to ten scale of drunkenness she was a “ten”, adding: “I do have a history of kissing randomners when I’m drunk.”
When cross-examined she admitted the CCTV showed her grinding her rear into Costanzo on the dance floor and flicking her long hair.
Orlando claims they flirted with each other and exchanged compliments, but the woman told the court she has no memory of their conversation.
She agreed the CCTV shows them “kissing passionately”, but denied groping him between the legs.
Once in the maintenance room Orlando claims the woman had consensual sex first with him and then Costanzo.
(Image: Hounslow Chronicle)
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Orlando’s QC Sarah Elliott put it the woman her behaviour was “receptive” and “enthusiastic” and that she was “moaning” with pleasure.
The complainant maintained she could remember nothing and the lawyer suggested the CCTV outside the room revealed her true feelings.
“You appear to be smiling. You gave them the impression you were having a good time.”
The trial continues.
