A long and tense defense speech marked the final hours of the trial against Ciro Grillo, Francesco Corsiglia, Edoardo Capitta, and Vittorio Lauria, accused of gang rape against an Italian-Norwegian student and her friend, one night in July 2019, between a nightclub in Porto Cervo and the Grillo family's villa in Cala di Volpe.

In the courtroom of the Tempio tribunal, it was Antonella Cuccureddu, Corsiglia's defender, who opened the defense team's intervention with a detailed and point-by-point reconstruction of the evening between July 16th and 17th .

His speech, which continued for much of today, focused primarily on the statements made by the two girls, highlighting their alleged contradictions.

Cuccureddu called the second young woman —the friend of the main accuser—"the beacon of this trial," pointing to what he described as "the most serious inconsistency" in the entire case: "Why," he asked the judges, "would she lie about the crucial point, that of sexual assault? If her friend had actually confided in her that she had been raped, how could she not feel unsafe and remain in that house, in the company of the person who had attacked her moments before?"

The defense lawyers tried to dismantle the prosecution's reconstruction by emphasizing the apparent normality of the house that night.

Lawyer Alessandro Vaccaro took a more pointed approach: "From the boys' statements, an air of lightheartedness emerges, then suddenly everything changes and turns into a nightmare worthy of A Clockwork Orange? Is this narrative shift credible?" he asked provocatively.

The oral arguments will continue until the conclusion of the trial. A hearing is scheduled for Monday, July 14, for the responses of Chief Prosecutor Gregorio Capasso, who has requested nine years of prison for each of the four defendants, and the civil parties. Immediately thereafter, barring any surprises, the judges will retire to the deliberation chamber to issue the first-instance verdict, awaited after a long and highly publicized trial.