By Rebecca Peppiatt and Ezra Holt
A jury’s decision relating to the charges against a Perth restaurant owner accused of sexually assaulting eight women has been suppressed by the courts on Tuesday afternoon.
Alberto Nicoletti, 32, and his friend Vincenzo Mineo, 39, were arrested and charged by police in 2021 after they were accused of raping a woman in a public toilet in Scarborough.
Alberto Nicoletti, left, and Vincenzo Mineo.
Following an appeal for information on the pair, eight other women came forward to say they too had been assaulted, seven by Nicoletti alone and one by Mineo.
The pair denied all allegations, with the matter going to trial in the Perth District Court.
After nearly two months of evidence and four days of deliberations, the jury handed down their verdicts on Tuesday, however, a suppression order was made preventing the media from reporting on the outcome of Nicoletti’s charges.
Mineo was found not guilty of raping a woman in a Scarborough beach toilet in 2021 – the charge at the centre of the case.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict for Mineo’s second charge, relating to a second woman he met on the same night and took home.
The accusations heard during the trial
Nicoletti was accused of pretending to be gay and faking being an Uber driver to lure women into vulnerable situations where he forced himself upon them.
But he steadfastly denied the allegations, telling the court the women were all willing participants in the sexual encounters.
“It really disturbs me, I would never do anything like that, that’s absolutely revolting, I would never ever, ever do anything like that,” he said.
His barrister, Tom Percy KC, told the court during an earlier hearing that Nicoletti could be called “promiscuous” but urged the jury not to judge him on his morals, only his alleged criminality, of which Percy argued there was none.
“Mr Nicoletti was a young, single man,” he said during that hearing.
Lago di Como owner Alberto Nicoletti who is facing sexual penetration charges.Credit: Lago Di Como Restaurant
“He was good-looking and had a successful restaurant business. He was attractive to young women and not, by any means, averse to casual, consensual sexual encounters.”
Nicoletti was charged with seven counts of sexual penetration without consent, one count of aggravated sexual penetration without consent, two counts of unlawful and indecent assault and one count of deprivation of liberty. Mineo was charged with one count of aggravated sexual penetration without consent and one count of sexual penetration without consent.
At the heart of the trial has been the issue of consent and whether Nicoletti thought it had been given.
Nine women took to the witness stand to claim they had not voluntarily participated in any of the encounters with Nicoletti or Mineo.
All had been drinking alcohol prior to the alleged incidents.
One woman testified she was so drunk after a night out watching the AFL grand final in 2018 with her husband that she did not know what was happening when the pair went back to Nicoletti’s South Perth apartment for drinks.
She told the court her husband left to use the bathroom, which is when Nicoletti went with her out of the apartment and into the foyer of the building and started raping her. Her husband later found the pair together and assaulted his wife, accusing her of being unfaithful.
Nicoletti told the jury the woman had been flirting with him all night in the lead up to the incident and that she had kissed him “passionately” when they were alone.
But all the women testified to experiencing a “freeze” response in the moment the incidents took place.
“Did you say no at any stage?” Percy asked a woman who claimed to have been raped by the men in a Scarborough toilet block.
“I don’t recall saying no,” she replied.
“You wanted to let them think you were consenting didn’t you?” Percy said.
“I was terrified at the time and felt as though I’d been tricked and didn’t know what they were capable of,” she responded.
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