Sex offender targeted heterosexual men believing they wouldn’t tell police

A multiple sexual offender targeted heterosexual men at a Chelsea nightclub as he believed they would be less likely to come forward, police have said, as they warned there may be other victims.

Luiz Da Silva Neto, 35, was found guilty on Friday at Oxford Crown Court of drugging and sexually assaulting two men in November and December 2021.

Da Silva Neto drugged his victims probably using GHB, the court heard, which breaks down extremely quickly in the body and can have a severe sedative effect.

He assaulted his first victim at a house in Middle Barton, Oxfordshire.

They had shots of Jagermeister before the man began to feel tired and went to sleep fully clothed, before waking up naked.

When leaving the property, the victim noticed what he described as a syringe on the side of the kitchen and became convinced he had been drugged, the court heard.

Da Silva Neto had told the trial “he was consenting” and “awake” when the pair had intimate contact.

A married man who had been on a night out with work colleagues in central London hotspot Raffles became Da Silva Neto’s second victim a month later, the court heard.

‘There may be other victims out there’

Insp James Holden-White, the senior investigating officer in the case, said: “He is brazen, there is an arrogance about it, that he thinks he can get away with this kind of thing.

“He knows that in targeting heterosexual men, who are a demographic of the population who are extremely unlikely to think anything like this would ever happen to them in the first place, but even more unlikely to come forward.

“Any victim of sexual offences will find it very difficult to come forward for any number of reasons, but for straight males, it is perhaps the most unlikely group to be able to come forward or the ones that would find it the hardest thing to do.

“That, we believe, is exactly why he has targeted heterosexual males in this particular instance, and it seems entirely possible therefore, that he may have offended before and there may be other victims out there.”

Oxford Crown Court heard that Da Silva Neto had attempted to pay off one of his victims but he was refused and subsequently reported to the police.

Mr Holden-White said: “He is going out, and in the first case, he got somebody who he knows, exactly where he wants him, in a position of vulnerability where he is able to administer this substance.

“In the second offence, he’s gone out and targeted somebody who is already drunk, and he has been able to get him where he wants him, give him this substance ... been able to offend against him.”

Da Silva Neto will be sentenced later this month.