A BRAVE survivor who secretly recorded her rapist’s confession left Good Morning Britain hosts stunned as she revealed how his lawyer “traumatised” and “shamed” her in court.
Ellie Wilson, 26, was raped by boyfriend Daniel McFarlane between 2017 and 2018 while both of them were students at GlasgowUniversity.
Fiend McFarlane was snared for the horror attack after Ellie secretly recorded him admitting to his sick crimes.
He went on trial in 2022 and was convicted at the High Court in Glasgow.
McFarlane was found guilty of two rape charges and attempting to defeat the ends of justice and caged for five years.
But Ellie’s ordeal was made worse throughout the trial by McFarlane’s lawyer Lorenzo Alonzi.
Speaking on GMB on Tuesday morning, Ellie told how the Edinburgh-based lawyer had accused her of having a personality disorder and even said her rapist was “unlucky” to have met her.
Addressing the court after McFarlane was found guilty, Alonzi suggested that the jury got it wrong.
He also stressed that Ellie had gone on to get a first-class degree, while his client’s dream of becoming a doctor was in ruins.
He added that his client “fell in love with the wrong person”, that he didn’t belong in court and that it was “difficult not to imagine some sense of injustice in it all”.
Ellie said his conduct during the court case left her “traumatised”.
Ellie said: “I came out of the court case completely traumatised, I felt like a broken person. Even just physically I was absolutely exhausted.
“But I knew what happened to me in court wasn’t right and I needed justice for what had happened because my justice journey didn’t end with my rapist being found guilty.
“I knew I had to pursue justice against this defence lawyer.”
GMB host Richard Madeley was left in shock after he asked Ellie what kind of things Mr Alonzi had said to her during the trial.
Ellie continued: “When he was cross-examining me, he accused me of having narcissistic personality disorder even though I have no diagnosis of that.
Rapist confessed in secret recording
ELLIE Wilson secretely captured Daniel McFarlane confessing that he had raped her.
In the clip, Ellie asks him: “Do you not get how awful it makes me feel when you say ‘I haven’t raped you’ when you have?”
He responds: “Ellie, we have already established that I have, but the people who need to believe me, believe me. I will tell them the truth one day, but not today.”
She then asks: “How do you feel about it?”
McFarlane replies: “I feel good knowing that I’m not in prison.”
“He plucked it out of the air and when the judge challenged him on it he said that it was his own assessment, even though obviously lawyers are not qualified to make medical assessments.
“He was just making things up and he kept asking me about random men, acquaintances and asking if I had used these men to make my abuser jealous but I think the worst part for me was actually at sentencing.
“After my abuser had already been found guilty by the jury, I was told that it was an ‘injustice’ that I had graduated with a first-class degree and a Masters with distinction while my abuser was going to prison.”
Richard Madeley then asked: “Didn’t he say as well that your rapist had been ‘unlucky enough’ to fall in love with you?”
“He was really annoyed by the fact that he wasn’t able to break me.”
Ellie Wilson
She replied: “Yes, he said that he had fallen in love with the wrong person.”
She continued: “It felt personal, it really did. During the cross-examination, it did get heated at points.
“I felt like he was really annoyed by the fact that he wasn’t able to break me and I think he wanted to put me in my place.”
Lawyer fined for ‘inappropriate’ conduct in court
Mr Alonzi was taken before the Faculty of Advocates after Ms Wilson made complaints about his conduct.
Ellie complained that Mr Alonzi’s cross-examination was inappropriate when he attempted to “elicit evidence she was not of good character” and “evidence relating to past sexual behaviour”.
The faculty ruled against Mr Alonzi and ruled his comments during the trial were “inappropriate and ought not to have been made at all”.
The Complaints Committee “unanimously” found Mr Alonzi guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct under the Faculty of Advocates Disciplinary Rules 2019.
They said Mr Alonzi has not appeared to accept any wrongdoing and hasn’t apologised to Ellie for his actions in court. Instead saying his submissions were focused on the fact he had received negative publicity.
It was noted that he did “regret any upset caused to the complainer as well as any perception of discourtesy to the court”.
He was handed a £2,000 fine and was issued with a severe written censure.
Mr Alonzi was also told to pay an extra £1,000 to Ellie as compensation for her time and dedication spent pursuing the complaint against him.
