Mildura Magistrates’ Court: Salvatore Colombo faces charges of indecent assault

A Swan Hill man is facing historic sex offences allegedly committed against two young girls, with one recalling an “old Italian man smell” during the alleged assault.

Salvatore Colombo has faced Mildura Magistrates’ Court after police charged him with sexually assaulting two girls.​

A woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted in Mildura in the 1990s has described her alleged offender as having an “old Italian man smell”.

Salvatore Colombo, of Swan Hill, faced Mildura Magistrates’ Court for a committal mention after being charged with two counts of indecent assault after police allege he sexually assaulted two young girls between the ages of nine and 16 and seven and 14 in the 90s.

One of the women told police she and her sister were allegedly assaulted when their mum took them to visit Mr Colombo’s house when they were children.

Magistrate Michael Coghlan read out one the victim’s statements to police where she describes in graphic detail the offences that Mr Colombo is alleged to have committed as well as making submission as to the identity of the assailant.

She described the house her mother took her to as being “dingy and dark” as well as having a distinctive “old Italian man smell”.

“It was dingy and dark, it had a smell that I could only describe as an old Italian man smell,” Mr Coghlan read out to the court.

This smell would then later appear again when the woman was allegedly assaulted after falling asleep on Mr Colombo’s couch.

“I remember waking up and his finger was in my vagina and it was really uncomfortable, I was scared to do anything so I just laid there.”

“It’s just that smell, I’ll never forget that smell, it’s like a wet smell and hotness”

She said that once the alleged assault was finished she allegedly heard the same thing being done to her sister.

“I could hear him doing what he did to me because the noises were the same.”

Mr Colombo‘s defence lawyer Christopher Terry raised the issue of identification making submissions that all they had to go on was smell and in woman’s own statement the room was pitch black.

However, Mr Coghlan still found the matter suitable for a trial at the County Court, starting September 28.