Students ‘raped girl at nightclub under the Palladium’
TWO postgraduate students swapped high-fives after raping a drunk woman in a nightclub maintenance room, a court heard yesterday.
Ferdinando Orlando and Lorenzo Costanzo had sex with the 25-yearold woman in the side room near the toilets six minutes after meeting her at the Toy Room Club under the London Palladium, jurors heard.
The pair are said to have passed the woman, who described herself as ‘ten out of ten’ drunk, from one to the other on the dance floor, taking it in turns to kiss her before leading her to the room.
After they emerged they were caught on CCTV laughing, hugging and high fiving, the court heard.
Orlando, 25, is studying for a postgraduate degree in international law and Costanzo, 26, is taking a postgraduate master’s degree in business and management.
Both plead not guilty to rape, insisting the woman consented.
Prosecutor Allison Hunter QC told Isleworth Crown Court the CCTV showed the three meeting. She added: ‘They can be seen to pass her from one to the other, each of them taking it in turns to kiss her.’
Orlando then leads the woman to the maintenance room as she holds on to his waist, with Costanzo behind, steering her as she leans into him, the court heard. ‘I was in the middle of them so it was hard to get away from them,’ the woman told the jury. ‘They were the support for me walking.’
All three emerged 16 minutes later, with the woman sandwiched between the defendants.
The prosecutor said: ‘Orlando can be seen to re-arrange her dress, which was twisted and raised at the front, to cover her modesty.
‘The pair propel her towards the ladies’ toilet, where they open the door and put her inside and turn and run down the corridor.
‘They ran straight up the stairs to the outside, where they can be seen hugging, high-fiving each other, strong arming, laughing and looking at what appear to be images or videos on a mobile phone.
‘They engage in gestures simulating sexual intercourse and oral intercourse and appear to laugh and congratulate each other.
‘It is the prosecution case that she was not able to consent to what she sustained at the will of these two defendants. Her capacity to consent was a matter of supreme indifference and irrelevance to them in their pursuit of their own sexual gratification.’
The woman told the jury she has no memory of the incident in the early hours of February 26, 2017, having begun drinking unlimited prosecco plus free shots and vodka at 11am at the club, where she was celebrating a friend’s birthday.
‘I remember being very drunk and falling over a lot and then I was in the toilets of the club in so much pain, not wanting to get out and then I remember being on the street, sitting on the sidewalk,’ she said.
She told police on a one to ten scale of drunkenness she was a ‘ten’, adding: ‘I do have a history of kissing randomers when I’m drunk.’
When cross-examined she admitted the CCTV showed her grinding her rear into Costanzo on the dance floor and flicking her long hair.
Orlando, of Pimlico in central London, claims they flirted and exchanged compliments, but the woman told the court she has no memory of their conversation.
She agreed the CCTV shows them ‘kissing passionately’, but denied groping him between the legs.
Once in the maintenance room Orlando claims the woman had consensual sex first with him and then Costanzo. Orlando’s QC Sarah Elliott suggested to the woman that her behaviour was ‘ receptive’ and ‘enthusiastic’. The woman maintained she could remember nothing of the incident. The trial continues.
‘Congratulating each other’