Footballers Mattia Lucarelli and Federico Apolloni sentenced to 3 years and 7 months for raping an American student

Condemned at 3 years and 7 months 24 year old footballers Mattia Lucarellison of the former Livorno striker, Cristiano, and Federico Apolloni. They are accused of sexual violence with three other friends, sentenced to sentences between 2 years and 5 months and 2 years and 8 months, against a Californian student. This was established by the Milan magistrate, Roberto Crepaldi, in the trial celebrated with an abbreviated procedure.

The rape after the night at the disco

The two footballers are accused of having abused the young girl after an evening spent in the club «Gattopardo» in via Piero della Francesca in Milan on March 27, 2022. According to the reconstruction of the prosecutor’s office, the group of friends had met the 22-year-old outside the nightclub. The girl had gotten into the car asking to be taken to her house, but the five of her had taken her to the footballer’s home. At the center of the trial were the conditions of the young woman at the time of sexual intercourse. According to the prosecution consultants, the 22-year-old was impaired, so much so that she was “unconscious” and her five friends took advantage of this state. According to the defense consultants, however, the girl was not in such a state of alteration as to be incapable of expressing consent and indeed, she claims the defense with her experts, her blood alcohol level was below 0.5, that that allows you to drive. An argument that did not convince the judge: the reasons will be made known in 90 days. «The kids are devastated», says one of the defenders of the defendants, all present in the courtroom.

The arrest and the cell phone videos

Lucarelli and Apolloni, defended by the lawyer Leonardo Cammarata, had been arrested on February 8, 2023. During the Flying Squad’s investigations, the video from that night, found in the boys’ cell phones. The players were put first to home and then subjected toobligation to reside in Livorno with a ban on leaving the house at night. The two have always denied that it was a gang rape.

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