The «bloody scene” of a beating to the detriment of a 15 year old prisoner, complete with stills of the violence filmed by internal cameras, is contained in an annotation dated March 15th, drawn up by the regional investigative 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 prisonwhich a week ago led to 13 officers being jailed and eight other colleagues suspended.
The investigators’ note mentions, in particular, theepisode that occurred on March 8th, one of the charges already contained in the precautionary order. That day the 15-year-old, who had previously obtained some cuts «on the arms»would first have been “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, had it pushed “against the wall” and hit “repeatedly in the head and chest” until it falls to the ground”. At that point one of the officers hit him, when he was on the ground, again «with numerous kicks».
In the annotation, filed in the documents of the investigation by the deputy Letizia Mannella and the prosecutors Rosaria Stagnaro and Cecilia Vassena and also conducted by the Flying Squad, they are reconstructed frame by frame the phases of the alleged violence and we read that the four agents were “in civilian clothes”, that is without uniforms.
The investigators’ note is based on «videos taken from the video surveillance system” of Beccaria. At around 6.57pm the “officers lead the prisoner out of the room”, who “refuses to be accompanied”. Some are, we read, «clearly visible bleeding stab wounds to the left arm». They are also indicated in the annotation the names of the four agents, later arrested or suspended. Around 7.10 pm the cameras film the 15-year-old returning to the cell with a bandage on his arm, after having been medicated in the infirmary.
First, however, after the boy had been taken out of the cell, there is “a sequence of images from which one can gather” that one of the officers «he hits the wall, gives him a slap», while «he drags and unbalances him with his right hand». The 15-year-old “falls to the ground” and the officer “insists with a kick delivered with the 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».
The “gory” scene, among other things, is “also partially displayed” by one camera near the infirmary: we see “a mattress positioned on the ground” onto which the boy “falls”. Then we also see «probably four people healthcare who, having heard the commotion, moved to the infirmary room”, where the prisoner entered. Finally, one reads again, after having been taken back to cell and after going to the infirmary, the 15-year-old is “picked up again” by two officers and taken to a “office on the ground floor» where it will remain «for approximately eight minutes». There, however, according to the note, there would have been no further “violent” conduct.
