Former AFL star Stephen Silvagni became emotional as he delivered a heartfelt statement on behalf of his family for the first time since his youngest son, Tom Silvagni, was found guilty of rape last Friday.

Speaking to the press outside the Victorian County Court following Tom’s pre-sentence hearing, Stephen expressed steadfast support for his son, who “continues to assert his innocence.” Standing beside his wife, television personality Jo Silvagni, Stephen said, “Jo and I, along with our family members and friends, are deeply disappointed with the verdict.”

The case details reveal that Tom Silvagni deceived the victim, telling her that her boyfriend would return upstairs because his Uber ride had been canceled. However, it was Tom who entered the darkened room shortly afterward, impersonating her boyfriend and committing digital rape twice.

In the aftermath of the incident, he manipulated an Uber receipt to falsely indicate that the victim’s boyfriend left the house after 2:30 a.m., further complicating the case.

But it was Silvagni who went into the dark bedroom a short time later and pretended to be the woman’s boyfriend before digitally raping her twice.

In the days after, he doctored an Uber receipt to make it look like the victim’s boyfriend had left the house after 2.30am.

Silvagni admitted forging the receipt but said he did so because he panicked after being falsely accused of rape.

But the jury rejected his story, finding him guilty of two counts of rape.

The maximum jail term for rape is 25 years.