Soho nightclub rape: Two men jailed Published duration 22 November 2019 Related Topics London violence

image copyright Met Police image caption Ferdinando Orlando (left) and Lorenzo Costanzo (right) were filmed "bragging" on CCTV

Two men who high-fived each other after raping a woman in a nightclub have been jailed.

Ferdinando Orlando, 25, and Lorenzo Costanzo, 26, led the victim into a store room of the club in Soho, London, and attacked her.

Orlando and Costanzo were jailed for seven-and-a-half years each at Isleworth Crown Court after a trial.

The Italian nationals escaped justice for more than a year after the attack by returning to their home country.

They were eventually arrested by police.

Police said CCTV captured the men high-fiving and hugging each other afterwards, while their victim lay abandoned in the club's toilets in pain.

They escaped justice for more than a year after the attack by returning to Italy, but were eventually arrested by police.

image copyright Met Police image caption Orlando and Costanzo led the woman into a store room at the club and raped her

Sentencing the two men, Judge Giles Curtis-Raleigh said they had committed "very serious offences" against "an entirely innocent and vulnerable young woman".

He added that each man had sex with the woman "at a time when she was incapable of consenting, you being aware of that".

The judge said that after the attack the pair displayed "triumphalist behaviour".

The Met Police said the woman, in her 20s, required surgery after the attack on 25 February 2017.

The judge said she had also suffered "very considerable psychological harm" and she had since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

'Behaving like animals'

In an impact statement, the victim said she remembered feeling in "incredible pain" and was left hardly able to walk.

The rape has left her in "constant fear" and unable to relax or enjoy drinking with friends when she goes out.

She said: "I truly struggle with how two humans could behave like such animals to another person and think of that as funny and like a badge of honour."

CCTV showed both defendants dancing with the woman and attempting to kiss her, officers said.

They were then seen breaking a lock on the maintenance room door before escorting her inside.

The men took turns to rape the woman before carrying her to the toilets after the attack, officers said.

She was found by staff an hour later.

Further footage showed Orlando and Costanzo run up the stairs to the nightclub exit, where they were seen high-fiving each other and making lewd gestures as they re-enacted the attack on a mobile phone.

Related Topics London violence

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