Rodolfo Sciolla says he was walking back to the carpark with his girlfriend after a concert when he saw a man chasing a woman on the street.
“We saw this guy, [he was] pretty drunk and probably high—he was clearly not in his [right] mind,” said Sciolla.
“We saw this girl crossing the street and the guy chasing the girl, trying to cross the street. He even stopped one car while crossing the road. It seemed very dangerous … there was a car [coming] and he was just stepping in the middle of the road.
“Then we saw this guy trying to catch the arm of the girl, and the girl was trying to push him away.”
Sciolla, who is from Turin, says it was at this point that he intervened and tried to calm the situation, but things escalated nonetheless.
“I tried to say to this guy, ‘Come on, mate … you should let it go,’” he said, adding that the man then came within centimetres of his face and threatened him.
“I’m not super good in English, but what he was trying to say was he wanted to throw my guts out of my body if I [didn’t leave].
“I didn’t step out [from between them], so we started fighting. My girl tried to stop this fight—this guy was pretty drunk and high, as I was saying, so he was not even distinguishing me from my girl, and I was very concerned about my girl because she’s very small and tiny, and this guy was pretty huge.
“So, I tried to protect my girl from this animal, and this guy basically [headbutted me] and I started bleeding. My girl started screaming, [then] other people came and tried to stop this guy.”
After being given some towels and ice from a nearby restaurant, the pair went to Fiona Stanley Hospital, where, after what Sciolla says was around ten hours of waiting, he was treated for a laceration to his face and received stitches.
Sciolla says he also hit his head against a wall during the melee but did not lose consciousness.
He says he does not know whether the man and woman knew each other, nor of what came of either after the altercation.
Sciolla has not pressed charges or contacted the Italian Consulate in Perth but is considering doing so.
While describing Australia as a “fair country”, Sciolla did admit that being a non-citizen has made the thought of pursuing justice more daunting than if he were back in Italy.
“Since I’m an immigrant here—I know Australia doesn’t [treat immigrants differently in court]—it at least makes you ask yourself what might happen to your visa and these kinds of things,” he explained.
“It’s a little bit frustrating.”
While the Italian says the incident hasn’t changed his opinion of Australia and wants to permanently settle here, he believes it is the result of an issue that doesn’t get enough attention.
“No one is talking about drugs and alcohol in Australia,” he said. “Usually, Australians are the nicest people in the world. I’m the first person who says to Italians, ‘Come to Australia, because it’s a very nice country.’
“But this is a problem that exists, and when people are under [the influence of] alcohol or drugs, they are not really able to make [good] decisions.”
