‘Disturbing’ rapist sentenced for a third time as judge says he has an ‘inability to understand consent’

4 days ago 1

A Perth restaurant owner has been sentenced over the horrific rape of a woman in her own home while she was so drunk she had passed out, his third sexual assault conviction.

Alberto Nicoletti, 33, found the woman outside the Windsor Hotel in South Perth in July 2020 after she fell over and, “showering her with compliments”, drove her home where she passed out drunk on her bed. He then proceeded to rape her, which he denied, telling a jury it was a consensual act.

But in a victim impact statement the woman, now 29, told the court she still experiences flashbacks and nightmares about the incident that happened when she was 23 years old.

“I often feel overwhelmed by sadness and anger,” she said, after telling a jury she had woken up on her bed the same night to find Nicoletti on top of her.

Alberto Nicoletti, left, and Vincenzo Mineo.

“I dream of the life I had before Alberto Nicoletti made the decision to rape me.”

She told the court “the effects will stay with me for life” and said the assault had affected her daily life and relationships as she battles anxiety, trust and problems sleeping.

On Friday, as he was sentenced over the crime, judge Gary Massey told Nicoletti he had serious concerns about his attitude towards women as he gave him a three-year prison term for the offence.

It’s the Italian native’s third conviction after he was found guilty of two similar sexual assaults last year which he was given a 5 ½ year combined sentence for.

“The disturbing feature of these three convictions is Mr Nicoletti’s inability to understand consent and inability to respect the boundaries of people saying no or not being in a position to consent,” Massey said.

Initially, eight women came forward to police to claim they had been raped or sexually assaulted by Nicoletti over a five-year period between 2016 and 2021 at various locations around Perth.

He pleaded not guilty to all of them and took the charges to trial last year, alongside his friend Vincenzo Mineo who was also charged with the sexual assault of one of the same women.

Lago di Como former owner Alberto Nicoletti.

But the mammoth trial ended with a hung jury, meaning the members of the public charged with deciding his fate could not come to a conclusion over the majority of the assaults. Two of them they did decide he was guilty of and two of them not guilty. Another of the charges was later dropped.

Mineo was found not guilty.

This year Nicoletti again fought four of the charges and was found not guilty three times.

Friday’s sentence marks the end of an ordeal that began after a girl went to police claiming Nicoletti and Mineo had raped her in a public toilet outside the Lookout Bar in Scarborough in March 2021.

The pair were arrested and police made a public appeal for more information, leading to the other women to come forward with similar stories.

Ahead of his last sentencing this week, prosecutor Samuel Lindsay said Nicoletti’s offending represented “an attitudinal problem towards women” and that the 33-year-old acted with a “sense of entitlement”.

“He cannot act in this way and completely disregard their bodily integrity for his own sexual gratification,” he said.

In sentencing him, Massey said Nicoletti’s risk of reoffending was “moderate” because he hadn’t had the opportunity to complete any programs that would address his “issues with gaining consent of women before you sexually penetrate them”.

Nicoletti will be eligible for parole in February 2028.