Giuseppe Difonzo he is guilty of having suffocated little Emanuela, his little daughter just three months who was in hospital on the night between 12 and 13 February 2016. This was established by a new sentence from the Assize Court of Appeal of Bari, presided over by Ornella Gozzo, who sentenced the 36-year-old from Altamura to 29 years of imprisonment. Difonzo was charged with voluntary manslaughter. The sentence comes after the Court of Cassation, in March 2022, annulled the conviction and ordered Difonzo’s release from prison, once again referring the matter to the appeal.
The judicial case
Difonzo was sentenced in the first instance to 16 years’ imprisonment on charges of Pre-Intentional Murder. The Prosecutor’s Office challenged the sentence before the Court of Appeal, hypothesizing the crime of premeditated voluntary homicide. The judges recognized Difonzo’s guilt and sentenced him tolife sentence.
The defense, however, raised a series of objections before the Supreme Court ranging from the validity of the evidence of guilt to the legal qualification of the crime. Furthermore, the reports revealed that Difonzo was suffering from «Munchausen syndrome» by proxy”, i.e. that psychiatric condition for which one tends to exert violence on others to draw attention to oneself.
Little Emanuela died in February 2016, after spending 67 days in hospital for respiratory problems. These problems were apparently caused by a previous attempt by her father to suffocate her.
