Five Italian hotel workers ‘drugged and gang-raped British mother, 50’

An Italian prosecutor has demanded that five hotel workers on trial accused of drugging and gang-raping a British mother be jailed for nine years.

Antonio Barba told the court that the men should receive nine-year sentences so they can be ‘made an example of’, according to the Sun. 

The 50-year-old mother, who cannot be named for legal reasons, believes her drink was spiked on the last night of a holiday in the Italian seaside resort of Meta di Sorrento, south of Naples, and that a group of men who worked at the hotel brutally raped her. 

Antonino Miniero, Gennaro Davide Gargiulo, Raffaele Regio, Francesco Ciro D’Antonio and Fabio De Virgilio, identified in photos published in Italian media, all deny rape, claiming the sex was consensual.  

Antonino Miniero (right) and Raffaele Regio (left) have been charged with rape at the Italian seaside resort of Meta di Sorrento, south of Naples

The victim and her 26-year-old daughter had travelled from Kent, southern England, to Sorrento in Italy in October 2016, in the wake of the recent death of the mother’s husband. 

Mr Barba added: ‘There is evidence this group sex attack was carried out with the use of drugs.’

DNA from two men was reportedly found under the mother’s fingernails and matched two of the accused – Miniero and Ciro D’Antonio.

The men were caught by police after sharing the disturbing video on the WhatsApp group, a court heard. 

Fabio De Virgilio (left) and Davide Gennaro Gargiulo (right) have been accused of raping a 50-year-old British woman at hotel where they worked with their co-accused 

Prosecutors say the victim was taken to a room close to the swimming pool where she was raped several times by the men before stumbling back to her room at the Hotel Alimuri. 

Her 26-year-old daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she felt unwell after the pair were given drinks by the accused after eating in the hotel restaurant, and went to the toilet to throw up, but when she returned, her mother had vanished.  

Francesco Ciro D’Antonio is one of the five men accused of rape at the Hotel Alimuri

She previously told the court: ‘My mum seemed distant and far away. She broke down in tears at the airport as we were leaving and told me everything that happened.

‘[The night of the attack] We had dinner at the hotel restaurant and shared a bottle of wine. We were with another couple of holidaymakers.

‘The staff at the restaurant were very polite. Then one of the barmen offered my mother and I drink in some shot glasses.

‘One of them had a tattoo on his neck. They invited us to the bar for a drink after we finished our dinner.

‘I remember having a drink and then almost immediately feeling sick. I went to the toilet and threw up. I was there for a while and when I came back my mum had disappeared.’

The mother was so shocked she did not tell police what happened until she returned home to Kent.

The woman reported the attack, and DNA samples and drug tests were sent to Italian investigators. 

They revealed a high level of the sedative benzodiazepines but lawyers for the five defendants claim the victim was on tranquillisers following the death of her husband.

But her daughter told the court: ‘My mum has never taken any medicine like that.’ 

Police were led to the suspects using a photograph of the bartenders taken by the woman and the crown tattoo which she remembered seeing on one of their necks. 

The trial continues.