They allegedly refused to follow doctors' advice, failing to provide their teenage son with the necessary treatment for the cancer that later killed him.

A married couple is being investigated for voluntary homicide by the Vicenza Public Prosecutor's Office. The two, both in their fifties, are residents of the province of Vicenza and now risk trial before the Court of Assizes. The boy was enrolled in middle school and died at the San Bortolo hospital in Vicenza at the beginning of last year.

The case was reportedly brought to the attention of the judiciary by the social services of the municipality where the family lives. The report was first forwarded to the Public Prosecutor's Office for Minors in Venice, and then to the Vicenza Prosecutor's Office, where the investigation file was opened and the hypothesis of the crime was formulated.

In recent weeks, the Judicial Police have listened to the two parents, retracing the stages of the story. Based on their statements and the outcome of the consultation carried out at San Bortolo, the Prosecutor's Office has thus formulated the hypothesis of the crime of voluntary homicide. The couple is assisted by the Vicenza lawyers Lino and Jacopo Roetta, who have declared that before the judging panel they will be discussing "a family drama. These parents are already living a sentence that no court, no judge, can aggravate. The accusation that is being made against these parents seems enormous to us. This couple is already serving their 'life sentence'. Having said that, once we have read the documents we will try to understand exactly the accusations that are being made against us".

(Online Union)