Nights on the balcony without even a blanket to mitigate the bitter cold of winter, the frantic search for food scraps in rubbish bins in the throes of hunger. And then the beatings and those threats that seemed to give her no way out: “I’ll kill you, I want you dead, I want you in a wheelchair.” Abuse and violence were the order of the day for a 55-year-old woman suffering from mental disorders and forced by her own caregiver to carry out all kinds of household chores from dawn until late at night. Five long years of abuse described in the documents of the investigation coordinated by the public prosecutor Antonella Barberafrom today under consideration by the judges of the Court of Assizes of Turin presided over by Alessandra Salvadori.
Three people are on trial: Michela G., 45 years old, her husband Maurilio G., 43, and the latter’s mother-in-law, Benedetta G., 68 years old. The accusation is slavery for all, but the 45-year-old is also accused of crimes of injury and embezzlement for having pocketed the money – around 300 euros a month – which should have been used for assistance.
It was 2016 when the 55-year-old’s father died. She the latter remains alone and has need assistance. For this reason the parent had decided to entrust her to Michela G., who had been their caregiver until then. Michela was supposed to take care of the woman, but instead she turns her into a slave.
The household chores, which she does until two in the morning, are just the tip of the iceberg of the hell in which the 55-year-old is forced to live. Her bed is the cold floor of the corridor, if not actually the balcony: “If you take a blanket, I’ll kill you”, Michela screams at her. Her meals, few of them, are old moldy leftovers: «You must not eat», scolds her when he catches her rummaging through the garbage at night to try to get some food. Her clothes are little more than mended rags. Humiliations that frame the beatings and insults: the medical certificates testify to the bruises left by iron bars, the burns caused by the iron, the swelling on the face from the slaps and punches taken. Corporal punishment is a macabre ritual everyday life: a poorly ironed shirt is enough for a woman to be humiliated and hit with ferocity. Everything is forbidden to her, even memories: after the death of her father, the caregiver throws away CDs, books and photographs that tell the story of her childhood and life with her parents. One day Michele G. surprises her in a moment of contemplation in front of the statue of Saint Anthony: “If I catch you praying, I’ll kill you” he shouts at her as he rages on her defenseless body. The horror is brought to light by the 55-year-old’s guardian, who, no longer able to meet her client, turns concerned to the police. And this is how the woman is saved and transferred to a protected facility.
