St Andrews PhD student sentenced for assault

An award-winning PhD student at St Andrews has been sentenced to five years in jail for two sexual assaults that happened on campus last academic year.

Pasquale Galianni, 31, committed the sexual assaults 28^th November 2013 and 10^th April 2014, in the North Haugh area of the campus. He was sentenced to five years in prison and expelled from the university.

Mr Galianni was working towards his PhD in astronomy when he committed the assaults. He had even won the Cormack Prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in for his work on astronomy in 2013.

The attacks shocked the St Andrews community and led to a number of new initiatives by the University to ensure student safety, including the introduction of a free night bus to take students back to halls of residence from outside the union and the library after 10pm. This initiative is still in place.

Judge Lord Burns told Mr Galianni that all women are entitled to go about daily life without the fear of being subjected to humiliating attacks.

“Both these girls were attacked while walking alone near to their halls of residence and then they were each subjected to a brief, but terrifying sexual assault”.

Lord Burns also pointed out that the attacks at St Andrews were very similar in nature to other attacks that Galianni had carried out on three students in Germany in 2006.

Following his release from prison, Mr Galianni will also be monitored due to the danger he poses to the general public.

Detective Chief Inspector Michelle Johnson, of Police Scotland, highlighted how important it was for the victims to come forward in order to investigate incidents like this.

“I would like to thank all the young women who came forward and would commend their courage in reporting these incidents to police.”

“Their bravery allowed us to launch an investigation leading to the capture of this sexual predator and to prevent him from carrying out further attacks on women.”