The “bloody scene” of a beating against a 15-year-old prisoner, complete with stills of the violence filmed by internal cameras, is contained in an annotation dated 15 March, drawn up by the Regional Investigation Unit of the Penitentiary Police, in the records of the investigation by the Milan Prosecutor’s Office into alleged torture and mistreatment in the Beccaria juvenile prison, which a week ago led to the imprisonment of 13 officers and the suspension of eight other colleagues.
The investigators’ note talks, in particular, about the episode that occurred on March 8, one of the charges already contained in the precautionary order. That day the 15-year-old, who had previously suffered cuts “on his arms”, was first “led out of the cell” by four officers and then dragged down the stairs, “also pulling him by his bleeding arm”, by one of them.
Two of the officers then, according to the charges, pushed him “against the wall” and hit him “repeatedly in the head and chest” until “he fell to the ground”. At that point one of the officers hit him, when he was on the ground, still “with numerous kicks”.
In the note, filed in the investigation documents by the deputy Letizia Mannella and the prosecutors Rosaria Stagnaro and Cecilia Vassena and also conducted by the Flying Squad, the phases of the alleged violence are reconstructed frame by frame and it is stated that the four agents were “in civilian clothes”, i.e. without uniforms.
Officers arrested at Beccaria, the sequence of the beating in the camera frames
The investigators’ note is based on “videos taken from the Beccaria video surveillance system”. At around 6.57pm the “officers took the prisoner out of the room”, who “resisted being taken”. We read that “some bleeding stab wounds on the left arm are clearly visible”. The annotation also indicates the names of the four officers, who were later arrested or suspended.
Around 7.10pm the cameras film the 15-year-old returning to the cell with a bandage on his arm, after having been treated in the infirmary. First, however, after the boy had been taken out of the cell, there is “a sequence of images from which we can see” that one of the officers “slams him against the wall, gives him a slap”, while “dragging him and unbalancing him with the right hand.” The 15-year-old “falls to the ground” and the officer “insists with a kick delivered with his left foot”. Another of the agents, among other things, shortly after “will take care – we read – of preparing food for the children of the group by transport using special trolleys”. Operation in which he will be “helped by the boys” detained.
Another camera, it is specified in the note, “unequivocally” reconstructs the moment in which the officer “throws” the 15-year-old against the wall and “gives him a slap in the face”. The “gory” scene, among other things, is also “partially displayed” by a camera near the infirmary: we see “a mattress positioned on the ground” onto which the boy “falls”. We then also see “four people, probably healthcare workers, who, having heard the commotion, move to the infirmary room”, where the prisoner entered.
Finally, we read again, after being taken back to the cell and after going to the infirmary, the 15-year-old is “picked up again” by two officers and taken to an “office on the ground floor” where he will remain “for about eight minutes”. There, however, according to the note, there would have been no further “violent” conduct.
Investigation into torture at Beccaria, suspended officers questioned
The guarantee interviews also resumed today. And the former commander of the penitentiary police in the Beccaria juvenile prison, Francesco Ferone, accused of having falsified reports to cover up the violence of his colleagues, spoke before the investigating judge of Milan Stefania Donadeo for almost two hours.
After last week’s interrogations of the 13 policemen arrested for charges ranging from mistreatment to injuries to torture, today four of the eight suspended officers were questioned, including Ferone, suspended as a precautionary measure for the charge of forgery. Today three responded to the judge’s questions, while one exercised the right not to respond. The other four will be heard tomorrow.
Torture at Beccaria, the chaplain Don Burgio and the former chaplain Don Rigoldi heard in the prosecutor’s office
Don Gino Rigoldi and Don Claudio Burgio, respectively former chaplain and chaplain of the Beccaria juvenile prison, were also interviewed as people informed on the facts. The prosecutor Rosaria Stagnaro and the deputy Letizia Mannella, who coordinate the investigation conducted by the flying squad and the penitentiary police themselves, are continuing with the summons of a series of witnesses. In recent days they have collected the stories of the two religious people who essentially repeated that they were “sorry” for not having noticed the violence against the boys.
They explained that in some cases they saw signs and thought they were due to quarrels between the minors, who however seemed “reticent”: in that “hellish” climate, as the investigating judge Stefania Donadeo defined it in the order of precautionary custody, and perhaps out of fear, they preferred not to say anything to the two chaplains.
According to what has been reported, the prosecutors have a busy schedule in the next few days: they will still have to interview around ten young people, including other alleged victims of the alleged beatings and torture, healthcare personnel and educators. They could also acquire other documentation. Meanwhile, among those who have already asked the judge to revoke the arrest measure, three have appealed to the review court.
