Texts reveal hospitality king knew of sex assault claims against son as more victims come forward

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Three more women have accused the son of one of Australia’s most famous hospitality figures of sexual assault, as text messages reveal Maurice Terzini was aware of several more women who wanted to press charges against his son.

There are now at least nine alleged victims of Sylvester Terzini’s sexual and violent misconduct between 2016 and 2023 whose claims include anal and oral rape.

Sylvester Terzini (left) and his father Maurice at their former venue, Snack Kitchen.

Sylvester did not respond to detailed questions about each incident but broadly denied the allegations.

Sylvester has also been accused of keeping an album full of photos of naked or semi-naked women and storing the albums at Maurice’s house. Maurice and Sylvester denied the allegations.

New text messages reveal Maurice knew of at least three women who wanted to press charges against Sylvester, after saying one “sexual case” had already cost him tens of thousands of dollars.

“Cost me 60k in fees last one sexual case where he was out every night. And I lost a year of my life,” Maurice said in a text in March 2022. “There are three girls that still want to press charges that I know.”

The text messages also reveal Maurice was contacted multiple times about his son’s alleged behaviour, but dismissed them as allegations despite acknowledging his son had “no control”.

“Sylvester will have [a] woman charging him out of the blue,” Maurice said. “Sylvester is done for me. [I’ve] lost my best friends of 20 years to support him and his sexual assaults.”

Last week, an investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age revealed a years-long alleged trail of destruction by Sylvester involving sexual assaults of women and threats to co-workers that shattered decades-old relationships in the tight-knit restaurant industry.

Three more women have since shared their own stories about the 32-year-old. They spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fears for their safety.

One woman has accused Sylvester of anally raping her in 2019 at her Sydney apartment after a night out with mutual friends.

“We started having sex consensually, but it turned into something different,” she said.

“I said ‘stop’. He didn’t. He held my neck into the mattress, face first. I couldn’t move. It was so violent. I was trying to stop, but he continued … When he released the pressure, I rolled over, dazed, trying to breathe.”

The woman shared a photo with the Herald of her bruised body following that night showing the extent of the violence.

One of Sylvester’s alleged victims has accused him of anally raping her.

The woman said she contracted a sexually transmitted infection from this encounter and that Sylvester had not revealed this diagnosis to her. Two other women have also accused Sylvester of giving them the STI without their knowledge as far back as 2018.

“I haven’t been the same since, with lifelong health and financial implications because of Sylvester,” she said.

“I don’t want to be reminded that that happened to me in that way, and now I have it forever.”

Another woman said she was anally raped by Sylvester after a night out in Angel Bar in Melbourne’s CBD in 2021.

She was introduced to Sylvester through mutual friends in the hospitality industry and the pair got along well. They went back to the woman’s house with some friends, had some drinks and went to her room, where they began having sex.

“It started off being consensual at the start, and then it quickly wasn’t,” she said.

The woman said Sylvester penetrated her anally. “I very quickly was saying ‘no, no, no, no’. And he kept doing it very violently.”

The woman said she then went silent and into shock as Sylvester “completely just took control”. “It was very scary,” she said.

The woman said she never confronted Sylvester about that night because “it was quite violent when it happened – it just felt like maybe he was a violent person, and that something horrible could happen again if I ever did that”.

She said she’d had difficulty trusting men since and felt compelled to come forward after seeing other women do so.

“I saw myself completely in the women’s stories and how they felt just so scared, and having to just go along with it for it to be over, to sort of protect yourself,” she said.

“You feel like you just lose a part of yourself a bit in it after it’s happened, like a part of innocence goes away. It really does change you.”

A third woman described being in a casual sexual relationship with Sylvester in 2022 and waking up to him trying to penetrate her, masturbating and putting his penis in her face. Her account mirrors those of two other previously reported victims who claimed Sylvester would attempt to penetrate and choke them while they were sleeping.

She also alleges he exposed himself on the street outside a popular Melbourne bar in front of her.

“He tried to take his pants down and then he was rubbing up against me on the street,” she said.

The woman described Sylvester’s “manic and erratic behaviour”. “His mood swings were so unpredictable, intense and scary,” she said. “When he was good, he was so good … And when he was bad, he was really bad.”

The woman informed Maurice of his son’s violent behaviour and drug use. She messaged Maurice to say Sylvester was repeating troubling behaviour from Sydney.

In text messages, Maurice responded that the Sydney allegations “were not true” and that he appreciated her message and concerns and would follow up immediately. But other than one missed phone call, she said she did not hear from him again.

“Instead of getting him the help that he needs, putting him in rehab or therapy, he just moved him around his restaurants,” she said.

Maurice later moved Sylvester to Sydney, where he employed him at his next three restaurants, Jackson’s on George, Snack Kitchen and Billy the Pig.

Two women who raised concerns with Maurice about Sylvester’s behaviour labelled the Icebergs founder’s protection of his son “disgusting”.

“It’s absolutely appalling,” said one woman who raised concerns with Maurice in 2022. “I told him that he needs to talk to his son, and he needs to get him help. He knew about it … he’s protected his son’s dangerous, turbulent, inexcusable behaviour for years now.”

Maurice employed Sylvester at the Dolphin on Crown Street later that year, followed by Cucina Povera Vino Vera in 2022. The pair co-founded Snack Kitchen in Potts Point last year, a restaurant Maurice celebrated as one that father and son “can genuinely call ours!”

Inside the workplace, Sylvester has also been accused of violent rages, including pulling out a knife in front of colleagues at Icebergs Dining Room and Restaurant Hubert. Maurice denied his son pulled out a knife at Icebergs. A spokesperson for Swillhouse confirmed Sylvester was counselled and left the business the following day.

Through his lawyers, Mark O’Brien Legal, Maurice said he has no recollection of sending the text messages and denied engaging in any inappropriate conduct.

“Without knowing the context, our client however surmises that [some of the] text messages … were in relation to the sexual touching charge against our client’s son that was subsequently dismissed,” they said.

Sylvester Terzini at the opening night of Billy the Pig in Bondi Junction last week. Credit:

“In circumstances where our client’s son no longer works at any of our client’s venues, we do not understand the relevance of [the] questions.”

Sylvester hosted the opening night of Maurice’s latest venue Billy the Pig last week.

Maurice has opened more than two dozen restaurants across Sydney and Melbourne including the world-renowned Icebergs Dining Room and Bar. His international acclaim has seen him secure deals with Crown Barangaroo, Sydney Airport and the Intercontinental Double Bay.

None of the alleged sexual incidents occurred inside Maurice’s venues, but multiple of his alleged victims first met Sylvester at one of Maurice’s restaurants or businesses linked with the hospitality veteran.

Maurice is on leave from Icebergs as the restaurant he founded two decades ago and its investors launch an investigation into the allegations raised by this masthead.

His lawyers moved to distance Maurice from Sylvester on Wednesday.

“We wish to emphasise that our client, Mr Maurice Terzini, and his son Mr Sylvester Terzini are individuals represented separately, and we request that your reporting is distinctly clear there are no allegations against our client,” they said.

“Your questioning and reporting implies blame and tarnishes the reputation of our client.”

Among the previously revealed accusations against Sylvester include threatening and attacking a woman inside a Sydney apartment who felt “at his mercy to do basically anything”, sexually assaulting a person in the bathroom of a Sydney nightclub, and sexually attacking two women while they were sleeping. One woman described feeling like she was “about to die”.

This masthead has also been told of the alleged existence of albums full of photos of Sylvester’s sexual partners, either naked or in sexually compromising positions.

At least two women have alleged they have seen the albums. One woman said that there were various photos of her, some of which were taken consensually, but others were of her naked and asleep. Two women said other people had seen the photos that they only gave Sylvester consent to view.

Another woman alleged the albums were at one point stored inside Maurice’s home.

In one text message, Maurice references an album of photographs by threatening a woman, writing: “I am sure there are photos in his collection”.

Through his lawyers, Maurice said he had no idea what the text message referred to.

“Our client does not possess any photographs of his son or his partners engaging in any sexual act,” they said.

A spokeswoman for NSW Police said the police force recognised the trauma that victims of sexual violence experienced and encouraged them to make a report to police, either formally or through the anonymous online Sexual Assault Reporting Option.

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

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