" I was wrong. I have never committed a crime, this is the first time it's happened, and I'm very sorry ." A few words, accompanied by a full confession, and after 48 hours in prison, a 42-year-old man under investigation in Turin for the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl is released, against the advice of the public prosecutor , with the sole requirement that he report to the nearest police station every day.
And politicians are up in arms . From right to left, starting with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, statements are pouring in against the preliminary investigations judge's decision. At the end of the hearing, he didn't just state that there was no need to extend the prison stay: he didn't even confirm the detention, given that there was no risk of escape.
"A 13-year-old girl leaves her house to buy her brothers a snack," Meloni wrote on social media. "She enters a convenience store. She leaves devastated. A man is arrested on charges of being responsible for that violence within hours. The prosecutor asks for jail time. Two nights. Then out. The judge's reasoning is: he had a clean criminal record, he was cooperative, he said he was sorry. Sorry."
"Rightly," the prime minister added, "we talk a lot about security. The government is rightly held accountable for what's wrong. But here, the question must be asked thoroughly. We've written the laws, and they're stricter than ever. The police have done their job very well. The prosecutor's office has requested the harshest measures. The entire chain has worked. And then comes a measure that breaks it. We're moving forward. Laws, personnel, means, resources. All the way through. But this is truly difficult ."
The attack on the judiciary, however, is launched from all sides, to the point that the lacerating divisions of the referendum era are becoming a distant memory. The Brothers of Italy party staged an impromptu flash mob outside the Turin police headquarters, Justice Minister Carlo Nordio announced the deployment of inspectors, and Matteo Salvini applauded, reviving the League's proposal on chemical castration on social media. But the center-left also took a stand. Raffaella Paita (IV), Fiorella Zabatta (AVS), and all the Democratic Party parliamentarians on the femicide commission took a stand: "Sexual violence against a minor under 14 is serious, worrying, and once again we fear the risk women face has been underestimated."
THE RECONSTRUCTION – The thirteen-year-old girl had gone to her usual neighborhood minimarket, on the outskirts of Turin, to buy fruit juice for her brothers. This had happened several times before. However, the man, the owner of the shop, originally from Bangladesh, approached her, hugged her, and began severely sexually assaulting her . The girl ran out of the shop and immediately called her mother. Her statement conveys the anguish and horror she was forced to endure: the disgust, the nausea, the shock that at one point prevented her from even walking. "I couldn't move anymore, I called a friend and told him I wasn't feeling well. He came over, got me the drinks, helped me get up, and we went for a walk together to calm me down." The thirteen-year-old's account, according to the investigating judge, is precise, detailed, and coherent. It is also corroborated by images from the minimarket's surveillance cameras. It was the merchant himself, who immediately retrieved the software login credentials, who allowed the police to examine them immediately. This backfired, given that the footage shows that just minutes earlier he had groped a 40-year-old customer (the police are looking for the woman to determine whether or not she intends to file a complaint).
At the validation hearing, the opinions of the court and the prosecution did not overlap. Prosecutor Paolo Cappelli, in addition to validating the arrest, had requested detention, but the suspect's "repentance," his clean criminal record, and his cooperation with the officers were the cards that played in his favor . The arrest, according to the judge, was a "trauma" that will have a "deterrent effect" for the future.
Once the precautionary measures, which exist, are met, pending further developments in the investigation, the obligation to report will be sufficient. And the 42-year-old will be able to return to work at his shop, in the same neighborhood as the victim.
(Unioneonline/vl)