Tom Silvagni, the 23-year-old son of an AFL great, can now be named as the man convicted of raping a woman in his family’s Melbourne home, after a gag order was lifted.

Silvagni, the son of Stephen Silvagni and TV presenter Jo, impersonated his friend, crept into the darkened bedroom where the victim was sleeping and raped her twice.

He pleaded not guilty in the Melbourne County Court to two counts of rape but was convicted after a two-week trial. The jury returned its guilty verdicts on December 5.

His well-known influencer girlfriend remained publicly by his side throughout the trial and gave evidence on his behalf.

Tom Silvagni’s name and the reasons behind the secrecy order were suppressed following repeated applications from his legal team.

His lawyers had argued that naming their client would damage the Silvagni family name, something that had played on the 23-year-old’s mind.

“It’s very much reputation to the family that seems to be a core driver of the problem,” David Hallowes, SC, said earlier this year.

Tom is the youngest son of Carlton great Stephen Silvagni, and the grandson of Blues Hall of Famer Sergio. Tom’s older brother, Jack, followed in the family footsteps to start an AFL career at the Blues before switching to St Kilda for the 2026 season.

The gag order was lifted on Thursday after County Court judge Andrew Palmer noted Tom Silvagni’s name had become common knowledge despite the suppression order.

“In my own experience, people talking to me about it, who don’t know I’m in any way involved in the case, have known the identity of this person. These are outside legal circles.”

Silvagni’s lawyers pressed for the order to continue because of their client’s mental ill health.

“It’s not just a concern about his own name; it’s about how that impacts on his family,” Hallowes said.

But Palmer said: “At some point he will have to reconcile with the reality.”

The order prohibiting publication of Silvagni’s name, and any personal information about him or his family that might cause him to be identified, was first granted in June 2024.

It was then extended in the County Court, with Palmer saying it was necessary to protect the administration of justice because Silvagni’s legal team had argued their client was so concerned about his family being embroiled in the case that it was impacting his mental health and ability to properly instruct his lawyers.

The details surrounding how and why the gag order was made were also banned from being published. Lawyers representing several media outlets, including this masthead, fought over months and in multiple courts to have the order lifted, at one stage winning an application to have the ban lifted only for it to be overturned in the Supreme Court.

Breaches of a suppression order can incur fines and even jail time.

Silvagni was supported by his parents and girlfriend in court during the trial. Family and friends cried and shook their heads when the guilty verdicts were read out.

Jurors were told that the victim visited the Silvagni family home while Silvagni’s parents were away, at the invitation of his girlfriend on January 13, 2024.

Present at the gathering were Silvagni, his girlfriend, their male friend and the victim.

When the four went to bed, Silvagni and his girlfriend went to one bedroom, and the victim and the friend another. The victim had consensual sex with Silvagni’s friend, who left her in the bedroom, called an Uber and left just after 2am.

Silvagni then entered the victim’s room, where he pretended to be his friend, saying the Uber ride was cancelled and he was unable to get another one.

He then raped the woman twice, despite her telling Silvagni to stop and that she suspected it was him.

The jury was told Silvagni tried to cover up his crime, obtaining a copy of his friend’s Uber receipt and altering the time of the journey to suggest the friend did not leave until 2.37am.

“I just want to make sure [her] lies don’t f--- us up,” Silvagni wrote in a text message to his friend.

He later told the victim during a taped phone call that it would be better if she would just “move on with her life”.

During the trial, Silvagni told the jury he never went into the victim’s bedroom and he had doctored the Uber receipt to “alleviate a bit of the stress” for him and his girlfriend.

“Obviously, looking back, I didn’t need to do it and it was stupid, but it was just to alleviate the stress ... because the allegations were so far-fetched and that’s just what I did, because I thought it was the right thing to do,” he said.

“I was stressed, panicked. I’ve never had someone accuse me of this before, so I was stressed for myself but also for my relationship.”

Silvagni, who was taken into custody on the return of the jury’s verdicts, will be sentenced at a later date. The maximum term for rape is 25 years, with an average of seven to 10 years.

Support is available from the National Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) and Victims of Crime Helpline (1800 819 817).

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