Costa Rei, takes the neighbor in pruning: "I wanted to defend myself"

She just wanted to defend herself, not kill: "I'm a retired nurse, used to helping and rescuing people, not beating them up."

Caterina Cossu, an 84-year-old from Silanus residing in the Sinnai countryside, reconstructs what happened a few days ago in Costa Rei when she landed a billhook blow to her neighbor «but on the smooth side, not the sharp one».

At the basis of the fact is a question which, he explains, has been going on for years. He allegedly asked the man, a 70-year-old from Burcei, «to make a gutter on the roof of his house because the rainwater now drains into my garden, puddles form, it slips, luckily I fell without hurting myself. He told me "maybe next year", I protested, so he and his wife and son approached me threateningly, waving his fingers in my face, in front of my eyes. At that moment I took the billhook and boom, a blow to the head. I did almost nothing to him, very little blood came out".

In the meantime, the billhook was confiscated: «I needed it to work. With age I'm getting smaller, I used it to prune the highest branches. I hope they return it to me."

Paul Carta

Envoy