Two Italian men who filmed themselves raping a 23-year-old woman in a Soho nightclub have been jailed for seven and a half years each.
Ferdinando Orlando, 25, and Lorenzo Costanzo, 26, carried out the attack in the maintenance room of the Toy Room club in Argyll Street, central London, in the early hours of February 26, 2017.
Police said CCTV captured the men high-fiving and hugging each other afterwards, while their victim lay abandoned in the club’s toilets in extreme pain.
They escaped justice for more than a year after the incident by returning to Italy, but were eventually arrested by police.
Following a trial, a jury found the men guilty of two counts of rape each.
Judge Giles Curtis-Raleigh sentenced the two men at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday.
The judge said they had committed “very serious offences” against “an entirely innocent and vulnerable young woman”.
He said that as the defendants led the victim off the dance floor of the club to the maintenance room they were “clearly acting together”.
“Each had sex with her, both oral and vaginal, at a time when she was incapable of consenting, you being aware of that,” he added.
The judge noted that afterwards the pair exhibited “what was referred to as triumphalist behaviour”.
Commenting on the victim’s injuries, the judge highlighted that medical evidence in the trial “makes it clear that the doctors cannot say how that injury happened” and as a result the defendants would not be sentenced on the basis they caused it.
But he said the victim had suffered “very considerable psychological harm” and noted that she had since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Rape Crisis services for women and girls who have been raped or have experienced sexual violence: 0808 802 9999
- Survivors UK offers support for men and boys: 020 3598 3898