An Aberdeen University student sexually assaulted a young woman during a Hogmanay party at his flat, a court has heard.
Dominic Gallo, 23, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court facing a single charge that he kissed and groped the fellow student without her consent and while she was incapacitated.
The court heard how Gallo asked the woman if she “wanted to call a taxi” before taking her into his bedroom and assaulting her.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual assault at a flat on Castle Terrace in Aberdeen on New Year’s Day last year.
Fiscal depute David Ballock told the court how the woman and a group of friends had gone to a New Year’s Eve concert the previous evening before heading to Gallo’s flat for a party.
‘You are really drunk, I feel bad’
In the woman’s retelling of events that night, she told police that she “considered herself to be drunk” and had continued to consume alcohol.
She also took a form of popper inhalant drug that caused her to feel “lightheaded and very floaty”.
Mr Ballock said: “At 3am on January 1 the complainer was in the hallway when the accused approached her and asked if she wanted to call a taxi.
“The accused told her to come to his bedroom due to the lack of noise so she could make the call.
“They went to his bedroom and sat on his bed.
“The last thing she remembers is being on her back and the accused kissing her on the lips and touching her buttocks.
“She felt dazed and he said: ‘You are really drunk, I feel bad. Do you want me to stop?’
“She was still dazed but replied: ‘I’m so drunk’.”
Gallo continued to kiss and grope the girl until someone entered the room and at which point she immediately got up and ran out of the room.
Young woman told lecturer she’d been inappropriately touched
The young woman then became upset and started crying before telling two friends that Gallo had touched her inappropriately.
She later told a senior lecturer at Aberdeen University and the incident was reported to the police.
Gallo was traced by officers before being cautioned and arrested.
Defence agent Iain Hingston asked that a social work report be carried out into his client’s background before sentencing.
Sheriff William Summers told the 23-year-old he “could not sensibly proceed to sentence on this matter” and deferred sentencing in order for a criminal justice social work report to be carried out.
He also placed Gallo, of Claremont Place, Aberdeen, on the sex offenders register.
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