AFTER being raped in her own home, a Coventry woman was too scared of her attacker to report it – but revealed what had happened in a phone call with someone serving a prison sentence.
And because prison calls are recorded and monitored, the police were contacted after the conversation was checked by a prison officer who heard what she said had taken place.
As a result, the police contacted Luigi Prota’s victim, and she told them of the attack.
Prota (47) of Rowley Green Lane, Longford, Coventry, pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting and raping the woman and subjecting her to intimidation.
But a jury at Warwick Crown Court took just over two hours to find him guilty of all three charges by unanimous verdicts.
Adjourning the case for an impact statement to be taken from Prota’s victim, Judge Anthony Potter remanded him in custody commenting: “He is going to face a custodial sentence of some years.”
Prosecutor Michael Shaw said that in August 2016 Prota turned up at the woman’s home in the early hours of the morning and threw stones at her window.
Having attracted the attention of the woman, who he knew, he persuaded her to let him in on the pretext that a child with him needed to use the toilet.
Once inside, he sent the child to another room and he and the woman went into the kitchen where he grabbed her intimately over her pyjamas and told her he wanted ‘a quickie.’
“She told him to leave, but he said not until he had got what he wanted.
“He pulled her to the floor and took down her pyjama trousers and pants and raped her. Having raped her, he left.
“She did not initially complain to the police because she was scared of him.”
The recorded phone call to prison was heard in court as evidence.
The recipient of that call had told her to ring the police, but she was scared of the implications of doing so until the police contacted her.
The police could not initially find Prota, but after he heard that they were looking for him, he went back to the woman’s home where he shouted threats at her, demanding to know: “What did you call the police to me for?”
When he was finally arrested, Prota accepted having sex with the woman, but claimed it had been consensual.
Asked by his barrister Blondel Thompson whether he had forced himself on her and raped her, he claimed: “No, I would never do that.”
After the jury rejected his account, Judge Potter asked whether there was an impact statement from Prota’s victim, but Mr Shaw explained that one was going to be taken after she had given evidence, but she had been too upset for that to take place.
He remanded Prota in custody.
