Sex attacker had struck in Germany
Student’s offences revealed
A SEX attacker who targeted two students from St Andrews University had carried out t hree s i milar attacks in Germany, a court was told yesterday.
Award-winning student Pasquale Galianni has admitted two street attacks at St Andrews’ North Haugh campus on November 28, 2013 and April 10 this year.
Judge Lord Burns has ordered a risk assessment of the danger the 31-yearold, who won the prestigious Cormack Prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2013, poses to women.
After pleading guilty at t he High Court in Glasgow, it emerged that the astrophysics PhD student has previously offended when he lived in Germany in 2006.
Advocate depute David Taylor, prosecuting, told the court: ‘The accused has no previous convictions in the United Kingdom but has a conviction from the time he spent in Germany for an offence described as “sexual coercion”.’
The judge said: ‘There are three incidents in 2006 which mirror quite closely what happened on two occasions.’
Mr Taylor told the court that just before 1am on April 10 this year, a 19-year-old student was walking alone to her accommodation on campus.
As she walked she turned around to see Galianni jogging towards her before he grabbed her in a ‘bear hug’ from behind.
Mr Taylor added: ‘The accused held on to the complainer for a couple of seconds before he moved his left hand down to the complainer’s buttocks.
‘The accused then released his grip and casually walked away.’
The girl shouted out ‘hello’ thinking it might be someone she knew but Galianni ran off. She phoned a friend then phoned the police.
Galianni went to Rome on April 16 and was detained by police on May 18 at Edinburgh Airport when he returned.
Galianni’s first victim, a 19-year-old student, was grabbed, dragged into undergrowth and pinned to the ground. He then tried to remove her tights and underwear. The attack happened around 5.30pm.
The student said in evidence: ‘ He was holding me down and trying to take my tights down. I just remember him saying “pretty lady”. I thought he sounded foreign. It wasn’t a British accent.’
When asked how she felt, she replied: ‘Terrified. He was very strong and I didn’t think I would be able to push him off.’
Sentence was deferred until next month at t he High Court in Edinburgh.