«I feel terrible, they practically have me half raped while I was sleeping…» he wrote to a friend on Whatsapp on the evening of August 15, 2020 in which she would have been the victim of alleged violence Of group during a party in a villa in the Belluno area of Visome. Under accusation, reported the next day by the girl, they ended three young footballers including former Virtus Verona player Santiago Visentin. For them, at the end of the process first degreethe Belluno prosecutor Roberta Gallego had asked for 8 years of imprisonment each, but instead the panel chaired by judge Antonella Coniglio acquitted them on January 17th: now, in the 66 pages of reasons just filed, the Belluno magistrates justify that decision by explaining that «from the detailed testimony of the injured person during the evidentiary incident» would have emerged «multiple inconsistencies capable of invalidating the intrinsic reliability of the tale testimony, at the same time as some factual data appear to conflict with the version given by the offended person”.
Absolution
Already sentenced at first instance in Verona to six years in prison (and now awaiting appeal in June) with others 4 former teammates of the Scaligeri team for the alleged gang rape of a university student, the former Virtus Visentin player had also ended up under accusation in Belluno for this second affair of alleged abuse together with two other footballers from Belluno, Federico De Min, 26 years old (left back for UC Borgo Valbelluna) and Matteo Verdicchio, 25 (who played as a midfielder for Asd Nogaré). If he had been found guilty in Belluno too, Visentin would have abandoned the world of football forever: instead, thanks to the sentence of absolution of last January 17, he returned to Italy (he had taken a break due to legal troubles returning to his native Argentina) and to professional football among the ranks of Audace Cerignola in Serie C.
The young woman’s story
Defended by the lawyers Alessandro Avanzi and Giuliasofia Aldegheri, Visentin was accused of having raped with his two companions (assisted by the lawyers Massimiliano Paniz and Anna Casciarri) a girl invited with them to a party in the villa to celebrate the Mid-August of 2020: «De Min (Federico, ed.) closed my mouth, telling me “Shut up, you bastard”, and kept it closed for a long time, until Santiago (Visentin, ed.) arrived – the part said offended — Initially I was stunned because having been drinking I wasn’t very clear enough to immediately understand “they’re raping me”. I realized after a few seconds…I told him to stop (…) I started to cry… I tried to move and remove myself but I couldn’t, because he was holding me forcefully (…) I assume it was him who gave me the bruise…”.
«Numerous profiles of low credibility»
This was reported by the young woman, in whose reconstruction however the judges denote «numerous profiles of low credibility“, noting that “the attached situation of unconsciousness appears completely contradicted by the findings in the documents.” Furthermore, the Board writes in the reasoning, «it is really not clear why, when De Min and Visentin changed positions, and therefore De Min had to let go, the offended party did not take advantage of it to get up from bed and to react in any way possible.” The players’ thesis has never changed: «She was consenting, there was no coercion.” At the trial, a key witness (present at the party and a friend of all the parties involved) declared that, having learned of the rape complaint, De Min and Verdicchio reacted by saying «Madness, it was a consensual relationship» and «that fuck it, I didn’t do anything.”
The judges’ doubts
The importance assumed by thesole eyewitness of what happened in that room: the door had remained open the whole time, and at the trial he declared that he had seen them on that bed and that he had told them “At least don’t get dirty”. To the judges, he explained that he had seen them «happy», while the girl «He didn’t seem in pain to me…Then I went back down and I never thought about it again.” For the judges, «we are in the presence of declarations from a single eyewitness who describes everything except a scene in which the offended party cries… fully reliable declarations which contradict the testimony of the offended party, radically contradicting it.” Even «the subsequent ones intercepted phone calls (among the accused, ed.) do not contain any permissive declarations of any kind”, indeed the three defined “the thing as a joke” and remarked that “all the doors were open, the windows open, she wasn’t tied up, or anything!”. From here, there triple acquittal because the fact does not exist.”
