Tom Silvagni, the 23-year-old son of Australian Football League legend Stephen Silvagni, has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for raping a woman and then forging a rideshare receipt in an attempt to conceal the crime.
Victorian county court judge Gregory Lyon handed down the sentence on Wednesday, jailing Silvagni for six years and two months. He will be eligible for parole after three years and three months. Silvagni's parents, Stephen and Jo, were in the courtroom but showed no reaction as the term was pronounced.
The court heard that the woman had consensual sex with her boyfriend at Silvagni's Melbourne home in the early hours of 14 January 2024. The boyfriend then ordered an Uber and left shortly before 2am. Silvagni told the woman her boyfriend would be returning upstairs because his ride had been cancelled, but instead Silvagni entered the dark bedroom and pretended to be her boyfriend before digitally raping her twice.
In the days that followed, Silvagni doctored an Uber receipt to make it appear that the victim's boyfriend had left the house after 2.30am. He admitted forging the document but claimed he panicked after being falsely accused of rape. A county court jury rejected his account and found him guilty of two counts of rape on 5 December.
Judge Lyon described the offending as egregious and callous. Support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse is available from organisations such as Rape Crisis in the UK on 0808 500 2222.
