Man accused of posing as Uber driver charged with sexual assault, rape

A man charged with multiple counts of sexual assault and rape has been accused by police of posing as an Uber driver to prey on intoxicated women outside pubs and clubs in Melbourne’s inner suburbs.

Francesco De Luise, 59, from Airport West, was arrested last month and charged with 10 sexual assault offences and one count of rape. The charges involve three women over the past 18 months, one of whom secretly filmed part of her alleged attack inside his vehicle.

Francesco De Luise.

De Luise was denied bail at a hearing in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday, after police investigators warned his alleged conduct had become “more brazen and blatant”.

Senior Constable Catherine Poole, of the Box Hill Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team, told the court that De Luise stopped outside the Public House in Richmond on September 3 and picked up a woman whose partner had ordered an Uber.

The father-of-three allegedly groped the young woman and said: “You don’t care, you don’t care, do you? You got in the car”.

“The complainant was petrified and tried to pull her legs together and move away,” Poole said.

De Luise is then alleged to have stopped his black ute and digitally raped the woman as she sat in the passenger seat. The woman managed to make an audio recording and also filmed part of the alleged attack on her phone. The recordings were later provided to detectives.

Barrister Carmen Randazzo, SC, acting for De Luise, told the court her client denied the rape allegation and said the sexual acts were consensual.

On June 13, a woman leaving a music festival in Southbank accepted a ride from De Luise, believing he was an Uber driver. He is alleged to have fondled her thigh and began masturbating in front of the woman, who said: “Stop, I feel really uncomfortable and I want to get out of the car”.

The woman escaped near the corner of Collins and Swanston Streets. She took a photo of De Luise’s registration plates as he drove off.

Francesco De Luise.

Randazzo said her client denied any sexual assault of the second woman, although he conceded giving her a lift.

The first alleged assault occurred on January 31 last year, when De Luise told a woman standing outside Club Retro on Lonsdale Street that he was an Uber driver. He allegedly groped the woman and said: “Oh come on, give me a shot,” the court was told.

After repeatedly asking him to stop, the woman was allowed out of De Luise’s car at a McDonald’s outlet in East Brunswick, where police were called.

Randazzo told the court that her client denied any sexual assault.

Poole said police had also received two complaints from the public about a man, later confirmed to be De Luise, targeting intoxicated women outside licensed premises.

One report dated back to 2005, when he was allegedly loitering outside a Moonee Ponds venue in a silver Holden Commodore.

“Police are unaware how many young woman may have been victims to the accused predatory behaviour,” Poole said.

De Luise’s wife gave the court an undertaking she would report any breach of bail by her husband, while his two sons were willing to provide a $50,000 surety to the court.

However, magistrate Daniel Muling denied the bail application. He said the prosecution case against De Luise was strong and rejected a submission that the 59-year-old would face an inordinate amount of time on remand awaiting trial.

He will face the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court again in December.

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