Gosford: Adriano Piantino jailed for raping teenager in train toilet in 2007

A man has been jailed nearly two decades after he followed a teenage TAFE student into a toilet on a northbound train and viciously raped her. Read what led to the breakthrough.

Adriano Piantino, then 50, leaving Gosford District Court in 2023 after his trail for allegedly raping a teenager in 2007 was aborted when the jury was played evidence it should not have seen. Picture: NewsLocal

An ice-addict followed a teenager into the toilet of a north bound train, pushed her to the ground and locked the door in a chilling attack that left the victim vomiting.

Now, thanks to a DNA match, the perpetrator has finally faced justice nearly 20 years later.

Adriano Piantino, 52, faced Gosford District Court on Friday where he was sentenced to seven years jail, with a non-parole period of four years, for the aggravated, unprovoked sexual assault on a then 17-year-old girl in 2007.

Piantino had pleaded not guilty to the offence and faced trial in 2023 but it was aborted through no fault of his own after the jury was shown video evidence it shouldn’t have seen.

Piantino faced a retrial in February of this year after which it took a jury just three hours of deliberation to find him guilty.

The victim was on a north bound train in 2007 when she needed to use the toilet. (File image)

Sentencing Judge David Wilson said the facts, as determined by the jury, were that the victim, a TAFE student, was returning home on March 5, 2007, when she needed to use the toilet.

Piantino followed and pushed her inside the cubicle where she struck her head on the paper dispenser and he locked the door.

Piantino pushed her into the cubicle. (File image)

He dragged her off the floor by her hair and began to lick her ear and neck.

“The offender forcibly removed her jeans and removed her underwear. The victim resisted,” Judge Wilson said.

“The offender kept his hand on her shoulder and throat as he did. The victim continued to resist. When the offender had finished he left the cubicle.”

The distraught victim then locked the door behind him and vomited before messaging her family, later telling them “I’ve just been raped on the train”.

Piantino leaving court after his first trail was aborted in 2023. Picture: NewsLocal

Police were called and she was taken to Gosford Hospital for treatment and to undergo a sexual assault examination.

Using her description police compiled a computer generated likeness of her attacker but it wasn’t until 2021, when Piantino was arrested and provided a DNA sample for an unrelated matter, that police got a match to a swab taken from the victim’s nipple, the court heard.

Piantino’s barrister Sally Orman-Hales told the court her client, who was 34 at the time, was addicted to “ice” and other drugs.

The Crown prosecutor described the unprovoked rape as an “extreme form of violence”.

With time served Piantino will be eligible for release on July 6, 2028.