Straight men ‘pretended to be gay couple to rape woman’, court told
The two straight men allegedly told their victim they were a gay couple before raping her. (WA Police)
Two straight men have been arrested in Australia after allegedly pretending to be a gay couple to lure a woman into a toilet and rape her.
Alberto Nicoletti, 29, and Vincenzo Mineo, 36, appeared in Perth Magistrates Court, Australia, on Thursday (12 August), according to WA Today.
The victim told police that on 14 March, 2021, the men invited her into a public bathroom by the beach to take cocaine after meeting her at a bar called The Lookout in the Perth suburb of Scarborough.
The men led her to believe they were a gay couple, she said, but she claimed that once inside the bathroom, they raped her. They were caught on CCTV exiting the toilet block.
The two men are accused of heading to a different bar after the attack, and assaulting two other women on the same night.
Police said in a statement: “During their investigation, Sex Assault Squad detectives were also contacted by other women who were allegedly sexually assaulted by the same men.”
Alberto Nicoletti has been accused by police in Australia of sexually assaulting six women in the space of five years
Vincenzo Mineo has been charged with two counts of aggravated sexual penetration without consent, aggravated indecent assault, and sexual penetration without consent, relating to the assault of two different women.
Alberto Nicoletti is accused of having a long history of sexually assaulting women. He is facing 10 charges for the alleged sexual assault of six different women over the last five years.
Police said his victims were all in their 20s and drunk at the time of the attacks, describing Nicoletti, a restaurant owner, as an opportunistic offender.
On one occasion, he is accused of posing as an Uber driver to lure a woman into his car, and on another he allegedly offered a lift to an injured woman, before raping her in her own home.
The men have not yet entered pleas. Nicoletti was denied bail and remains in custody, while Mineo is in home detention.
