By Heather McNeill and Ezra Holt
One of two men accused of luring a woman into a Scarborough public toilet and raping her has told a jury the threesome was consensual, and the woman a “willing participant”.
The woman claims friends Alberto Nicoletti and Vincenzo Mineo pretended to be a gay couple when inviting her to go and take cocaine with them in the toilet across the road from the Lookout Bar on March 14, 2021.
Seven other women also alleged Nicoletti sexually assaulted them in separate incidents between 2016 and 2021.
Alberto Nicoletti, left, and Vincenzo Mineo.
During a trial in the Perth District Court Nicoletti, 32, owner of the restaurant Lago di Como in Como, has denied one of the eight charges and claimed the other seven incidents were consensual.
“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.
On Monday, he took to the stand for a second day and gave evidence about the Scarborough incident, where he met his accuser in a bar.
“We approached her on the dance floor, we were right under where the DJ box was,” Nicoletti said.
“[After chatting for five minutes] we said we were going to do some cocaine and we asked her if she wanted to come.
“She said yes.”
Nicoletti said the trio were snorting cocaine off Mineo’s hand before the atmosphere “turned sexual”.
“We started to all kiss each other,” he said.
“It was very consensual, she was a willing participant.”
Nicoletti said he did not specifically ask for the woman’s consent as he thought the question of consent was obvious.
“I think it was very clear where we were going,” he said.
He claimed the woman never indicated she did not want to participate, and that she was not heavily affected by alcohol.
Later that night, Nicoletti and Mineo walked the short distance to El Grotto, another bar on the Scarborough strip, and are separately accused of sexually assaulting two other women there.
One of the women alleged she was very intoxicated and “incoherent” when Nicoletti followed her into a disabled toilet inside the bar and raped her. She claimed her next memory was of being outside by the road with Nicoletti and wanting to go home. She alleges she awoke the next day to him sexually assaulting her in her bed.
Asked in court if the toilet sex was consensual, Nicoletti said, “of course”.
“We were having a good time, we were both getting on really well from the start, and we literally went to the toilet for one reason,” he said.
“She never tried or said to stop. I didn’t have to force anything … there was no obstruction.”
He said the pair then went to the woman’s house and had “quite a lot” of consensual sex.
Nicoletti and Mineo both deny the allegations against them.
The trial continues.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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