{"id":680751,"date":"2026-01-07T21:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/680751\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T21:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:15:17","slug":"passenger-accused-of-trying-to-rape-woman-on-flight-to-edinburgh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/680751\/","title":{"rendered":"Passenger accused of trying to rape woman on flight to Edinburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

The High Court in Edinburgh heard the alleged assault took place shortly after the Edinburgh-bound flight took off from Naples<\/p>\n

A woman was left “hysterical” after being sexually assaulted by a fellow passenger on a flight from Naples to Edinburgh, a trial has heard.<\/p>\n

The witness – who cannot be named for legal reasons – told a jury she was targeted by Nicola Cristiano, 45, on an Easyjet plane.<\/p>\n

The High Court in Edinburgh heard the alleged assault took place shortly after take-off on 13 May last year.<\/p>\n

Cristiano denies a charge of attempted rape and has lodged a special defence of consent.<\/p>\n

The woman – who is in her 30s and from Aberdeenshire – said Cristiano moved seats to be beside her and offered her some wine.<\/p>\n

But after accepting his offer he is alleged to have to exposed himself, tried to get her to touch his genitals and to perform a sex act on him. <\/p>\n

The woman said she told the accused she had a husband but he did not stop.<\/p>\n

After the exchange Cristiano signalled for her to join him in the toilet.<\/p>\n

But when he entered the cubicle she approached a member of the cabin crew to raise the alarm, the court heard. <\/p>\n

The Easyjet flight had departed Naples at around 21:30 and was about two thirds full. <\/p>\n

The woman told the the court that she had been sitting in a window seat reading a book when Cristiano moved to seats to be beside her.<\/p>\n

The witness said he spoke Italian but had no English so they communicated with each other by pointing to things.<\/p>\n

She said: “I think I ordered some wine from the stewardess and I made a funny face because it wasn’t a very good wine.”<\/p>\n

The accused took out some wine from his bag in the overhead locker and gave her some and she told the court that she drank it.<\/p>\n

But a short time later she said she was left a “bit stunned” when Cristiano put his hand on her leg.<\/p>\n

‘He was very persistent’<\/p>\n

Speaking about what happened next, she said: “He was just very persistent. He tried to kiss me on my mouth.”<\/p>\n

The woman said Cristiano unbuttoned his trousers, touched her breast and grabbed her head during the alleged assault. <\/p>\n

She said: “I was pulling away.<\/p>\n

“I think at one point I told him my husband was sitting at the front to make him think I had somebody to make him stop but it didn’t make a difference.”<\/p>\n

The woman said she planned to ask to move seat if a member of the cabin crew came past but no-one did.<\/p>\n

The witness said that Cristiano then gestured to her go to the toilet with him.<\/p>\n

She added: “He wanted me to go first. I told him he could go first.”<\/p>\n

But when he entered the cubicle she notified the cabin crew.<\/p>\n

Asked if the crew helped her, she replied: “Yes. One of them didn’t let him out of the bathroom. They took me to the front of the plane and made me a cup of tea.”<\/p>\n

The court heard that Police Scotland were contacted and arrested Cristiano when the flight landed.<\/p>\n

The trial, before judge Alison Stirling, continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Images The High Court in Edinburgh heard the alleged assault took place shortly after the Edinburgh-bound flight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-680751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115855892545152512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}