Sentenced to four years and a half a man who tortured constantly a girl in Nerang

A man who tortured a female flatmate with weapons and stomped on her face in Nerang has been jailed for more than four years. Fillipo James Musso remained unrepentant as he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, hurling expletive-laden threats towards detectives in the Southport District Court public gallery.

The court was told Musso moved into his girlfriend’s Nerang rental in July last year and over three weeks he exacted a brutal and continual torture of her female flatmate in a bid to gain cash and sex from her.

Musso pleaded guilty to torture, assault, extortion, sexual assault and attempted fraud against the young woman in her early 20s. The court was told that shortly after moving in he started a scare campaign by destroying the young woman’s car windscreen, tyres, laptop and mobile and graffiting her furniture with the word “slut”.

On several occasions, he attempted to strangle the woman and bashed her with a broomstick and used pliers on her right pinky finger. When she refused to have sex with him, he grabbed a knife, pinned her down and held a knife to her face, the court heard.

He even demanded $800 in protection money and later stole $300 from her bank account and sold off her car for just $200. In a separate incident he punched the woman’s father in the face and threatened to kill him and his daughter unless he immediately paid $350.

But on August 12 his cruelty was unmasked by an observant bank teller. That day Musso and his girlfriend took the woman to a local bank and tried to withdraw cash from her flatmate’s bank account but failed when their signatures failed to match the one on file.

Judge Michael Rackemann denounced Musso’s behaviour as “reprehensible and unprovoked” treatment of a woman and sentenced him to jail. As he has already served nine months he will be eligible for parole from April 13^th next year.

By Santi Ivar

Sources:

Goldcoastbulletin.com.au