Ponytail saved my life
Nomadic chef still suffering.. 15 years after gun horror
CHEF Rinaldo Coluccia who says his ponytail saved him when he was shot in the head has hit out at the Scottish justice system.
AN ITALIAN chef who survived being shot in the head in what he says was a Mafia-style execution bid has hit out at the Scottish criminal justice system for denying him compensation.
Rinaldo Coluccia believes he only stayed alive as the bullet was slowed down by his ponytail.
The .22 calibre hollow-point slug entered the back of his head at an angle. Amazingly, it stopped one millimetre short of his vertebral column.
It was fired from a hunting rifle by gay American lawyer Matthew Sylvestre.
Rinaldo feels he is due compensation for the attack, which has left him with post-traumatic stress.
He said: “This saga is worse than being shot in the head.
“As a victim of crime, I had no counselling or instruction, I was on my own. I replied to questions put by the prosecution and defence and that was it. “I was never told if I could appeal.” Rinaldo believed at the time that Sylvestre would be his saviour in his legal struggles.
Instead, he now claims the schizophrenic – who later described Rinaldo as “an annoying parasite” – turned executioner in an international plot to bump him off.
For the first time since Sylvestre was locked up for eight years in 2004, Rinaldo, now 55, has told how close he came to being whacked 15 years ago.
He is currently homeless and travels around Scotland in an old caravan, accompanied by his dogs. Since his brush with death in 2003, he says he has suffered psychological and physical pain.
He said: “On Sunday, November 9, 2003, I had the worst 15 minutes of my life.”
Sylvestre lured him to his cottage at Arradoul, near Buckie in Moray, on the pretext of fixing his television.
As Rinaldo was kneeling down and peering at a fuse box in a cupboard, Sylvestre struck.
Rinaldo said: “I said to him, ‘Get me a screwdriver’ to open the fuse box. Within 30 seconds, I heard a whack at my back. It felt like somebody had whacked me in the neck with a bar.
“I thought I’d had an electric shock but it was my body’s reaction as the bullet went through my nerves.
“It was like banging your elbow and getting pins and needles but more painful.
“I rolled back and this guy was trying to smash my face with the butt of a rifle. He was beating me with the butt in my face and on my head. He thought I was dead and was trying to smash my face.
“I rolled around and he was still beating me. I grabbed the butt with my left hand and the barrel with my right.
“I lifted myself up and while I doing this, five other bullets fired against the walls and ceiling of the house.
“He had enough strength to put the barrel in front of my heart but I pushed it up – that’s when four or five shots went off.”
Rinaldo, who had been introduced to Sylvestre in Spain and came to Scotland for his legal help, was now fighting for his life.
He said: “A .22 calibre hollow-point bullet was fired into my head at a
I signed the power of attorney over to Sylvestre. He became my executioner RINALDO COLUCCIA TALKS ABOUT EXECUTION ATTEMPT
distance of less than a metre. I still have the entry wound.
“I had long hair and no one could understand how I had survived. It lodged inside the cavity, the occiput, and stopped one millimetre from my spinal cord.
“How come I am alive? Even the police couldn’t understand it.
“I had long, thick hair and because it was threaded together in a ponytail, it was as strong as steel. I believe my ponytail slowed the bullet.”
At Sylvestre’s High Court attempted murder trial in Dunfermline in 2004, Rinaldo said: “I was saying to him, ‘What’s going on? What have I done to you?’ I was almost crying but he never said anything. He was very angry. He was there to finish the job, to kill me.”
Rinaldo added: “He went to a room and came out with a machete. He was trying to cut me to pieces or cut my throat. I tried to get out the door but it was locked.
“He came at me, trying to disable me by cutting my arms or legs. He tried to cut me in half but I grabbed his wrists and took the blade off him, cutting my hands.
“I was able to turn the key and open the door and saw an old lady standing in the garden next door saying, ‘What’s going on here?’ I ran and at the second or third house, managed to raise the alarm. Sylvestre went on the run from his house with all the weapons. Witnesses saw him crossing the fields.”
In court, Rinaldo’s evidence helped convict Sylvestre of the lesser charge of assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement.
The then Moray area chief inspector Alan Smith described it as “a coldblooded and premeditated crime.”
He said it was unusual to find a case with “such a degree of pre-planning” in a rural area like Moray.
Rinaldo believes he was set up after being introduced to Sylvestre.
An unwanted child, Rinaldo claimed he was “institutionalised” as an infant and abused by nuns and priests in Italy. He says the Italian state had a duty of care and has been trying to expose those responsible.
After meeting Sylvestre and his schoolteacher lover in Gava, Barcelona, Rinaldo took up their invitation to go to Scotland. Sylvestre was barred from practicing law because of his schizophrenia but offered to help people “for free”.
Rinaldo said: “Sylvestre knew I was desperate for help with my Italian case. I had $20,000 – an insurance pay-out after my father was killed. That was one of the motivations to kill me.
“Secondly, the Italian case, if successful through the European Court of Human Rights, would be serious money. I signed the power of attorney over to Sylvestre and he became my executioner.”
After the trial, Rinaldo opened a restaurant in Forres, the Amo Roma Taverna, but later gave it up.