Tom Silvagni appeal, secret baby, Sinful confession of Alannah Iaconis: condoms in text messages

After the public revelation that Tom Silvagni was convicted of abuse, many people remain less than certain about what is really true and false.

The woman making the accusation expressed outrage on social control media. The media reported her comments anonymously. Yet it feels unfair that the woman can use the media to spread her side of the story anonymously while the appeal is still in progress.

When her comments were reported, Channel 7 decided to show us footage of the young woman's feet as she was walking out of the court.

 

In other words, while the media is obliged to protect the woman's identity, they are encouraging anybody who knows the two parties to ask questions and check facts on both sides of the case.

A lot of these disputes involve questions of politics, status and humiliations. If you look at the cases in the Debian suicide cluster, some of the men wrote complaints about being tricked to work as unpaid volunteers while fellow "volunteers" really got paid all along. Some of these people wrote about feeling humiliated just as victims of rape and abuse feel humiliated. Why did Adrian von Bidder-Senn die on our wedding day?

Most fans of Australian football are familiar with the long-running saga of Stephen Milne. The accusation against Milne was similar in many ways as it involved a party with two footballers and two women. Yet the Milne accusation is even more serious than the accusation against Tom. Milne was only given a penalty of $15,000 and he never spent one day in prison. Tom, on the other hand, has been given six years in prison. In these circumstances, it is only natural for people to ask why Tom has received inconsistent treatment from the justice system.

Tom's father Stephen Silvagni has a saint-like status in Australian football. The Silvagni name resonates like the name of Roger Federer in tennis or Tiger Woods in golf.

Tom's grandfather played two premierships with Carlton. Tom's father, Stephen, played over three hundred games with Carlton and then went to work in club management. But due to internal politics in the club, Stephen Silvagni resigned and went to work for rival club Saint Kilda.

This is ironic because St Kilda are simply known as the Saints but there is nothing Saint-like in what has been alleged. Yet the irony doesn't stop there. Looking at the official list of Australians proposed for Sainthood, we find none other than the legendary Dr John Billings.

The Catholic Church teaches us against the use of contraception and abortion. Nonetheless, Dr Billings developed and promoted the Billings Method for Natural Family Planning and it is the only method of contraception or "planned parenthood" that is endorsed by the Church. Every Pope in the last fifty years has given personal praise to the work of Dr Billings. Here is a news report on the Vatican web site:

Pope Francis upholds "Billings Revolution"

In a message to participants in the WOOMB International Congress Rome on the Billings Method, Pope Francis highlights its ongoing contribution to the understanding of human sexuality and to a fuller appreciation of the relational and procreative dimensions of the couple, saying that use of methods based on the natural rhythms of fertility should be encouraged.

and from the original text of the statement from Pope Francis:

John and Evelyn Billings conducted careful scientific research and developed a simple method, accessible to women and couples, for natural knowledge of fertility, offering them a valuable tool for the responsible management of procreative choices.

In fact, Dr Billings, who is on track to join the other Saints, as in heavenly saints rather than St-Kilda saints, is also a former student of Melbourne's Xavier College, just like my father and I and also the convicted Tom Silvagni.

At the end of year 12, we all received a yearbook from the school with a letter from our school captain. He tells us:

we always had the opportunity to accept or reject all that Xavier offered us

According to the report by the Daily Mail:

both Silvagni and Ms Iaconis testified that they distinctly recalled Mr LoGuidice entering their bedroom to ask for a condom, contradicting his account.

The Herald Sun goes even further, claiming there is a text message about the condoms.

A text message asking for a condom, a doctored Uber receipt and a dark bedroom in the luxury home of one of Melbourne's most famous families ...

The implication is that all of these wealthy families are spending vast amounts of money to send their sons and daughters to these schools and as soon as they graduate, they forget everything. If all four people in the house had been using condoms at some point during the party and they admitted that in court then all four of them have admitted what the church regards as a sin.

Social media has been full of links to stories about Tom Silvagni and Alannah Iaconis having a secret baby. Fact checking web sites are making rival claims that it is a hoax or clickbait.

In fact, if they had a secret baby then the reference to secrecy can only imply they put the baby up for adoption. In that case, there would be no news stories about the baby. Wealthy families have a lot of experience maintaining secrecy around such pregnancies. Therefore, we can not say the rumour is true and we can not say the rumour is a hoax either. It is what Donald Rumsfeld once described as one of the "unknown unknowns".

For Catholic families, every unborn baby is considered to be alive and this implies that every abortion is considered to be a murder. When very young women have an unplanned pregnancy, if they keep it totally secret they may be able to obtain an abortion on their own. However, if their parents or their school discover the pregnancy the girl will be encouraged to have the baby in secret and give it up for adoption. Therefore, the secret baby/adoption rumour is plausible and that is one reason it spreads easily on social control media.

A famous jurist William Blackstone makes the statement:

It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.

With that in mind, it is important that people who support these football clubs are asking for evidence and asking for both sides of the story.

Carlton Football Club advertises open training sessions where fans can meet each other. They have a Run for Respect each year. The next one is on 8 February 2026. This provides a good place for fans of the club to ask questions.

Likewise, the Saints advertise open training sessions and community events where fans can meet in person and avoid the fake news on social control media.