Stephen and Jo Silvagni outside court after their son was found guilty.Credit: Joe Armao
The gag order was lifted on Thursday after County Court judge Andrew Palmer noted Tom Silvagni’s name had become “a matter of common knowledge” despite the suppression order.
“In my own experience, people talking to me about it, who don’t know I’m in any way involved in the case, have known the identity of this person. These are outside legal circles.”
Silvagni’s lawyers pressed for the order to continue on the basis of their client’s mental ill health.
“It’s not just a concern about his own name; it’s about how that impacts on his family,” Hallowes said.
But Palmer said: “At some point he will have to reconcile with the reality.”
Silvagni was supported by his parents and girlfriend in court during the trial. Family and friends cried and shook their heads when the guilty verdicts were read out.
Jurors were told that the victim attended the Silvagni family home while Silvagni’s parents were away, at the invitation of his girlfriend on January 13, 2024.
Stephen and Jo Silvagni leave court after the verdict.Credit: Joe Armao
Present at the gathering were Silvagni, his girlfriend, their male friend and the victim.
When the four went to bed, Silvagni and his girlfriend went to one bedroom, and the victim and the friend another. The victim had consensual sex with Silvagni’s friend, who left her in the bedroom, called an Uber and returned to his own home just after 2am.
Silvagni then entered the victim’s room, where he pretended to be his friend, saying the Uber ride was cancelled and that he was unable to get another one.
Tom Silvagni on November 27.
He then raped the woman twice, despite the victim telling Silvagni to stop and that she suspected it was him.
The jury was told Silvagni then went about trying to cover up his crime, obtaining a copy of his friend’s Uber receipt and altering the time of the journey to suggest the friend did not leave the house until 2.37am.
“I just want to make sure [her] lies don’t f— us up,” Silvagni wrote in a text message to his friend.
He later told the victim during a taped phone call that it would be better if she would just “move on with her life”.
During the trial, Silvagni took to the witness box, telling the jury he never went into the victim’s bedroom and that he had doctored the Uber receipt to “alleviate a bit of the stress” for him and his girlfriend.
The Silvagnis outside court.Credit: Joe Armao
“Obviously, looking back, I didn’t need to do it and it was stupid, but it was just to alleviate the stress … because the allegations were so far-fetched and that’s just what I did, because I thought it was the right thing to do,” he said.
“I was stressed, panicked. I’ve never had someone accuse me of this before, so I was stressed for myself but also for my relationship.”
Tom Silvagni in 2024.Credit: Nine News
Silvagni, who was taken into custody on the return of the jury’s verdicts, will be sentenced at a later date. The maximum jail term for rape is 25 years, with an average sentence of between seven and 10 years.
Support is available from the National Domestic Family and Sexual Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) and Victims of Crime Helpline (1800 819 817).
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