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| Students Ferdinando Orlando and Lorenzo Costanzo are accused of raping the young woman in a room near the toilets (Picture: Tony Palmer) |
Two
university students were seen high-fiving after raping a drunk young woman in a
nightclub maintenance room, a court has heard. Ferdinando Orlando, 25, and
Lorenzo Costanzo, 26, were caught laughing and making sexual gestures on CCTV,
after leading her out of the room near the toilets, a jury was told.
The young
woman told the trial she later had to be treated for an injury between her
legs, adding: ‘I was very swollen, I could barely walk and there was a lot of
bruising. I was very scared.’
Post-graduate
students, Orlando, of Pimlico, who is reading international law, and Costanzo,
who is taking a masters in business and management, have both denied two counts
of rape.
The pair
insist the woman consented after swapping kisses with them on the dancefloor of
the club under the London Palladium, in the early hours of February 26, 2017.
Allison
Hunter QC, prosecuting, told Isleworth Crown Court CCTV footage shows the three
meeting, before they kiss.
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.
The young
woman said: ‘I was in the middle of them so it was hard to get away from them.
They were the support for me walking.’
All three
emerge sixteen minutes later, with the woman 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.’ Ms Hunter said the young woman was not able
to consent due to the amount of alcohol she had drunk.
‘Her
capacity to consent was a matter of supreme indifference and irrelevance to
them in their pursuit of their own sexual gratification,’ she added.
The alleged
victim 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 friend’s birthday.
She added:
‘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, where
doctors also noted three bruises between her legs, bruising to her bum, shoulder
and leg, plus a love bite on her neck.
When
cross-examined she admitted the CCTV showed her grinding onto Costanzo on the
dance floor and them ‘kissing passionately’ but maintained she could not
remember anything.
Orlando
claims they flirted and exchanged compliments, but the woman told the court she
has no memory of their conversation and denied groping him between the legs.
In the
maintenance room Orlando claims the woman had consensual sex first with him and
then Costanzo and the lawyer suggested the CCTV outside the room revealed her
true feelings. Orlando’s QC Sarah Elliott, said: ‘You appear to be smiling.
You gave them the impression you were having a
good time.’
The trial continues.
Source: Metro.co.uk
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