«We were inside the gym when we were warned by some participants that we had to run outside and when we came out we saw it. She was already on the ground. One of our nurse members tried to help him, but the paramedics were already arriving. We are deeply sorry, nothing like this has ever happened in the past.” It is the story of Leonardo Tamè, president of the Croviana sports association, which has been organizing the San Giorgio festival for nine years, talking about the attack on Friday 26 April at the Pezzen elementary school against the 41-year-old surveyor from Cles but resident in Croviana in Val di Sole with the family by two 24-year-olds whom he allegedly molested, as they declared to the Cles police.
The attacks
Meanwhile, some details emerge from the investigations that reconstruct the last moments of that night between 1 and 2. The man was allegedly attacked twice: inside the gym in a more gentle way, thanks also to the intervention of those present who helped him get up and leave, and subsequently outside where he was beaten with kicks and punches and, apparently, even when he was already on the ground. Then he got up, walked away and after a few meters outside the school building he collapsed unconscious. Furthermore, the girls would not have pushed him and caused him to fall and the presence of a third person in the scuffle would have been excluded. The man, still in serious condition, underwent head surgery for the hematoma due to the severe head trauma he suffered, in addition to multiple significant injuries, and remains under guarded prognosis in the intensive care unit of S. Chiara. But it is on the type of injuries that caused his loss of consciousness that the investigators are focusing. Did the 41-year-old fall due to beatings, drunkenness or both? And was the head injury caused by the beating or the fall? It will be the doctors’ diagnosis that will clarify. It will be crucial to understand whether there is a causal link between the fall and the beatings.
The testimonies
The Trento Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened a case (in the hands of prosecutor Maria Colpani) for very serious injuries to the two young women — one defended by the lawyer Andrea de Bertolini and the other by the lawyer Angelica Domenichelli — to shed light on the matter. What provided greater clarity were the testimonies given to the police by the participants in the Sagra de San Zorz, about thirty of various ages. All the stories reconstruct the event by recalling two attacks. Inside the gym where the young women – who told the police that they had been harassed with harsh comments and groping – responded with the first violent action, quelled by those present who helped the man by accompanying him outside. And outside, a few minutes later when the scene repeats itself but, according to witnesses, more aggressive and multiple, on several occasions. Even though the emergency services were promptly alerted and arrived within minutes, the forty-year-old was already unconscious and was airlifted under code red already in serious condition.
Festival suspended
The gym is still closed. Everything remained as the organizers left it (the Croviana sports association together with other local consortia) and the people who flocked to the first evening of the festival which was suspended that night. «We only had mass on Sunday – explains the mayor Gianluca Valorz – we prayed for our fellow villager». And then: «The country is in shock due to this unacceptable violence: we are not ready to face such dramatic episodes, we were preparing for three days of celebration: we are close to the family and hope to receive positive news soon».
