In December 2025, Tom Silvagni was found guilty by a jury in Victoria’s County Court of two counts of rape after a 10-day trial. The offences occurred in January 2024 at the Silvagni family home in Balwyn North, Melbourne. He digitally raped a woman in her 20s in a dark bedroom after a night out involving alcohol. Silvagni deceived her by pretending to be his former best friend Anthony LoGiudice (with whom the woman had a consensual casual relationship), including lying about LoGiudice’s whereabouts and later forging an Uber receipt as part of a false alibi. The jury rejected his claims.
He was sentenced to six years and two months in prison, with a non-parole period of three years and three months. Judge Gregory Lyon described the acts as “callous,” “egregious,” and “insidious,” noting Silvagni’s lack of empathy and use of deception. The judge praised the survivor’s strength, saying she had “found her own voice” and preferring not to use the term “victim” for her.
Silvagni has appealed the conviction, with grounds including arguments about certain evidence (like a recorded pretext phone call) being improperly handled at trial.
The specific focus of this Herald Sun piece is the survivor’s recent powerful public statement on social media, responding to online trolls who attacked her credibility. Critics questioned her trauma based on her appearance (e.g., wearing “cute matching sets” to Pilates), clothing choices, and social media activity, implying she couldn’t be a “real” victim if she seemed to be living normally or dressing in certain ways.
In her defiant message, she stated:
“After going through hell, best believe I am going to rock up to Pilates in a cute matching set.”
“What someone chooses to wear is not giving consent (even if it’s ‘revealing’). What a survivor chooses to wear has nothing to do with ‘well, they can’t be traumatised if they’re going out like that.’”
“What a survivor chooses to put on social media doesn’t mean they aren’t traumatised or that ‘it never happened.’ … There is no ‘right way’ to heal from trauma. Everyone’s different.”
Her statement pushes back against victim-blaming and stereotypes about how survivors “should” behave or look post-trauma, emphasizing personal healing and resilience.
This case has drawn significant attention due to the Silvagni family’s prominence in Australian football and media, and it highlights broader issues around consent, deception in sexual offences, victim shaming, and online harassment of survivors. The woman has also shared in court how the assault continues to haunt her daily.
SOURCE: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=HSWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heraldsun.com.au%2Ftruecrimeaustralia%2Fpolice-courts-victoria%2Fwoman-raped-by-tom-silvagni-hits-sends-powerful-message-to-online-trolls%2Fnews-story%2F7ec5d39584e531433cc64a7ac37a955d&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21=GROUPA-Segment-2-NOSCORE
