This is part of the statement of the woman who was raped twice by Tom Silvagni.
She gave her victim impact statement today – his lawyers are pushing for no jail.
We need to stand with her – always.
“Tom Silvagni you were my friend. Someone I thought I could trust.
“You didn’t just hurt me, you also have changed the trajectory of my life.
“Tom, you are my friend’s boyfriend. Sometimes I can’t even be around my other friends’ boyfriends without the worrying thought in my back of my mind that they might turn around and rape me just like you did.
“These are people I’m supposed to trust, people I’m not even meant to question for a second, but because of you, because of what you did to me, I can’t, and I won’t be able to (trust) for a very long time.
“Being raped by not only your friend but your friend’s boyfriend is a lot for a 20-year-old’s brain to process. Even now, two years later, a lot of it still feels very surreal and something I’ll never fully come to terms with.
“Being able to trust those close to you is super important, is a super important part to life, but because of you, this has been impacted so so much.
“My friendship with your girlfriend was one I enjoyed so much, but seeing how easily you were able to turn her against me with your gaslighting and lies left me feeling a type of betrayal that I never thought I’d experience from anyone.
“The pain of knowing my close friend is believing her boyfriend’s side after I’ve just had to make the scariest phone call of my life, telling her that her boyfriend had just raped me, is a pain that will have a long-lasting impact on my ability to trust new friends that come into my life for the rest of my life.
“There’s always a voice in the back of my head reminding me how lovely, sweet and respectful you always were to me until one night you decided to change everything.
“And my brain tells me, well, if Tom can switch up on you so surprisingly and quickly, so could anyone else you grow close to.
“I try so hard to still see the good in people and believe them, but now I question their motives before I even say hello, and every time I try your betrayal whispers in my ear.
“I can’t even put into words how severely your gaslighting and lies messed my brain that night, and not only that night, but to this very moment, two years later, knowing someone I called a friend was able to do something so horrific to me, and then 10 minutes later, look at me in the eye and deny it so genuinely like nothing had ever happened.
“It’s actually terrifying that someone you thought you knew and trusted could do something so evil.”
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