A young woman has described getting into what she believed was an Uber to go meet friends, and becoming trapped with the man driving the car as he sexually assaulted her.
“Being in that car that night, it felt like it was a weapon,” the woman, who cannot be identified, said in a statement to Melbourne’s County Court.
“I had no power over where it took me, how fast it went or what the driver did.”
She then expressed her horror at finding out the same man had attacked two other women.
“Again? He has done this again?” she said.
De Luise, 60, has admitted sexually assaulting three different women after lurking outside Melbourne hotspots and picking them up pretending to be an Uber driver between 2021 and 2022.
He pleaded guilty to rape, sexual assault and sexual activity directed at another person.
Francesco De Luise, who has been on bail since December 2022, was taken to jail on March 12 before his sentence later this week.
He attacked his first victim in January 2021, whom he picked up as she was leaving a Melbourne club.
Mr. De Luise pulled up and asked if she was waiting for an Uber, she said yes and got in the car.
The woman said she needed to vomit, but he continued to touch her.
“Come on, give me a shot,” he told her.
“Let me out!” the woman said.
He swore at her as she left, and the woman ran to a nearby McDonalds where she burst into tears.
Initially she didn’t give a statement to police, but agreed to after being told of similar reports of offending.
Mr. De Luise’s car registration was then identified by officers after reviewing CCTV around the nightclub, and his solicitor confirmed he was the driver in December 2021.
Despite this, he went on and attacked two more women in June and September 2022.
One woman was waiting to get an Uber from outside Sidney Myer Music Bowl, after a night of drinking with friends, to be taken to an after party in Melbourne CBD.
Mr. De Luise pulled up, insisted she get into the front seat and said he needed to “take a piss” on the way.
He put his hand on her legs, before he started masturbating and told the woman: “I need two minutes.”
The woman escaped and took a photo of De Luise’s car before he drove away, reporting the incident to police two days later.
The third woman’s boyfriend had booked her an Uber home to his place after a night out in Richmond.
She got into Mr. De Luise’s car and became scared, realising the Uber her partner booked had cancelled.
“You don’t care, you got in the car,” Mr. De Luise told the woman before he raped her.
She stood before the court and explained her “lonely and dark” existence since the attack.
“I'll never forget this is the night that I thought I was going to die ... It’s something no person should ever have to experience,” she said.
Top defence barrister Dermot Dann KC said De Luise had lost $6 million in bad investments, turned to alcohol and was involved in a fatal car accident around the time he offended.
But Judge John Smallwood questioned how any of that would have led him to sexually offend, accusing De Luise of feeding police “a pack of lies” and victim blaming during his interview.
“He’s lying throughout his interview ... each one he blames the victim, it’s dreadful,” he said.
Mr. De Luise, who is facing up to 25 years in prison, will be sentenced on March 14.
He was supported in court by his wife and son.
