{"id":342297,"date":"2025-12-12T03:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T03:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/342297\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T03:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T03:50:08","slug":"tom-silvagnis-victim-tells-pre-sentence-hearing-she-is-haunted-by-rape-every-single-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/342297\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Silvagni’s victim tells pre-sentence hearing she is haunted by rape ‘every single day’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The young woman raped by Tom Silvagni has described the horror of the night it happened and the lasting impact it has had on her life.<\/p>\n

Fighting back tears as she read her victim impact statement to Victoria’s County Court, the woman described the fear and confusion over the incident in January 2024.<\/p>\n

“That moment haunts me every single day,” she said.<\/p>\n

Warning: This story contains content that may be distressing to some readers.<\/p>\n

Silvagni, 23, was found guilty of rape by a County Court jury last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If this story raises issues for you:<\/p>\n

A suppression order barring reporting of his identity had been in place since mid-2024 until it was lifted on Thursday<\/a>, with Silvagni’s lawyers citing evidence about their client’s mental health.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old is the son of former Carlton Football Club star Stephen Silvagni and the younger brother of Jack Silvagni, who has played for both Carlton and St Kilda.<\/p>\n

His grandfather, Sergio, was also a two-time premiership player for the Blues, and his mother, Jo, is a television personality.<\/p>\n

The trial heard Silvagni went into the dark bedroom the woman was staying in, climbed into the bed and digitally raped her.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Silvagni had lied about being the woman’s boyfriend during the rape and later tried to cover it up.<\/p>\n

‘You didn’t stop’<\/p>\n

At today’s pre-sentence hearing, the victim told a packed courtroom that the trauma of that night would live with her forever and had shattered her world.<\/p>\n

“Do you know how scary it is to have a big, strong man hold my hands behind my back,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Every day of my life I am [taken] back to that vision.”<\/p>\n

“No matter how many times I told you to stop and tried to wriggle out of your grip, you didn’t stop.”<\/p>\n

The victim, who dressed in white for the hearing and chose to remain unidentified, also outlined the ongoing post-traumatic stress disorder she dealt with, along with the loss of and breakdown of her friendship group as a result of the offending.<\/p>\n

Silvagni attended the hearing via video link from prison and remained still and mostly emotionless.<\/p>\n

Both his parents were present during the hearing but did not enter the courtroom until after the victim’s impact statement had been read.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Tom Silvagni is the son of television personality Jo Silvagni (left) and AFL great Stephen Silvagni (second from left). (AAP: Joel Carrett.)<\/p>\n

Speaking outside court, Stephen Silvagni became emotional as he told reporters his family was “disappointed” with the outcome of the trial.<\/p>\n

“Our son continues to maintain his innocence and we stand firmly behind him,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Our goal is to clear his name and bring him home.”<\/p>\n

He said the family was considering options to appeal and requested privacy.<\/p>\n

Tom Silvagni will be sentenced next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The young woman raped by Tom Silvagni has described the horror of the night it happened and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[638,64,63,189962,44,189961,13396,189960,51300,189959],"class_list":["post-342297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-high-profile-family","tag-news","tag-prominent-melbourne-family","tag-rape","tag-silvagni","tag-stephen-silvagni","tag-tom-silvagni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}