He stretched out his hands in the classroom, on the students in his class. Only with men. All minors. In some cases during a test or an interrogation, in other cases during laboratory exercises or during the correction of a task. And this is why a 42-year-old chemistry professor (born in Sicily, but then raised in Calabria) ended up under house arrest last Wednesday on charges of sexual assault. Five cases have been confirmed so far, all involving children aged between 14 and 16. The teacher, employed in a professional institute in the south of the capital, was reported last October. The parent of one of his students, having heard his son’s confession, turned to the police and the investigations began from here. Following a simultaneous house search of the suspect, which allowed the soldiers of the investigative unit in via In Selci to recover child pornography material, with the collaboration of the principal and the heads of the Lazio regional school office, in the institute video cameras were placed.
Rome, professor gropes underage students in class in a high school: he is now under house arrest
The investigations
And from the images collected in the months following the first complaint, the evidential framework has gradually strengthened. In those shots, in fact, the professor would be seen touching and groping – during lessons and exercises – other students, with the same methods used with the first victim from whose complaint the investigation started. In some cases, physical harassment took place even in the presence of other students. The victims were heard during protected hearings and all gave the same story. Which was then also reinforced by classmates and another teacher who had collected the boys’ confessions. Thus, last April 24, the military personnel followed up on the order of the judge of the preliminary investigations of the Court of Rome. The man who lives alone, without a wife or partner or children in a municipality in the Roman hinterland, did not resist and much less uttered any words. Assisted by the lawyer Pierfrancesco Bruno, following the first complaint he spoke to the principal, rejecting the accusations, but trying to get himself moved up the class. Again with the manager he would have minimized the importance of those accusations, trying to explain that it was his empathy that had been confused, the way he had in approaching the children and teaching but that it was inappropriate to remain teaching in a class from which a clear complaint had been made. However, with the investigations started and with the installation of video cameras in the institute, the professor remained in his place without being transferred or suspended. And over the following months, there were several additional elements that led the investigating judge to accept the requests of the deputy prosecutor Giuseppe Cascini and the deputy prosecutor in charge of the file Barbara Trotta. There are no shadows or events of similar gravity in the teacher’s past. The man has no criminal record but during the search the military found files with child pornography inside. Then the new episodes of alleged abuse towards other students in his class, just as if the first complaint had in no way persuaded him or made him think. Even though he knew that investigations had been launched against him.
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The tales
According to the accusation, he continued to place his hands on the children only within school hours, during service. There are no additional elements such as messages, phone calls or appointments requested and obtained outside the institution. The harassment only occurred at school. A smile, a kind word, a compliment on a good job done and a hand on the students’ private parts. Tomorrow the professor will be subjected to an interrogation before the investigating judge Mara Mattioli. In the meantime, the Ministry of Education, with the notification of the arrest order, has been alerted so that it can decide whether to take disciplinary measures against the teacher (who currently still teaches in that institution).
The previous
The case in Rome follows, a few days later, another similar incident which took place in an educational institution in Ravenna. Here too, a professor over fifty ended up under house arrest on charges of sexual violence against a minor student. The timing is similar: in Ravenna too the abuse appears to have begun in recent months but in different ways. In this case there is only one victim, she would have started receiving compliments first, then messages and finally gifts. On other occasions there would have been sexual harassment: at least three incidents were disputed. In the end the student couldn’t take it anymore and she decided to confide in her mother, to explain why she no longer wanted to go to school. At that point the Flying Squad’s investigations began.
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The messenger
