Segregated in a niche in the garage, in the cold, forced to eat from metal bowls for dogs. These are the conditions in which the Piacenza Police found an elderly disabled man, relegated by his family to the tiny space a few meters wide.

The 73-year-old was transported to hospital and admitted . He is now under medical supervision. He has heart problems behind him and an ischemia had forced him into a wheelchair.

Three people are under investigation for kidnapping and ill-treatment: one was arrested, the son of the elderly man's wife, a 57-year-old Bulgarian married nine years ago.

It is not clear at the moment why the condition of segregation has arisen: perhaps the difficult family management of a disabled elderly person with cognitive impairment convinced his wife and the other two cohabitants (stepson and mother-in-law) to find the most comfortable for them.

According to the investigators, the elderly man had been living in this prison for at least two months. Some neighbors called the police who heard continuous moans and lamentations.

The man was lying on a bed with a cellophane cover: next to him an electric heater and the dogs' metal bowls with the remains of canned food inside. A slim booth gave access to a lavatory with a sort of shower. No trace of the sink.

(Unioneonline/ss)