«I hope one day to be able to pray on my wife’s tomb”, says Mirko Alessandrini emotionally, 55 years old, a disability pension, a job as a handyman in a minor football team, a past as an alcoholic. Next to him, his lawyer, Nicola Detti, criminal lawyer of the Arezzo Court, remembers Guerrina Piscaglia, who disappeared on May 1, 2014 and was never found again. He says he continues to love her.
According to Italian justice, the woman was strangled by a priest, Father Gratien Alabi Kumbayo, a monk of Congolese origin of the Order of the Premonstratensians, sentenced with a final sentence to 25 years in prison which he is serving in Opera. Mirko agreed to answer some questions with the help of his lawyer. One trial is over, but not the second in civil courtin which the lawyer asked the diocese of Arezzo for one million euros in compensation.
Why to the diocese of Arezzo and not directly to the priest who killed Guerrina?
«Because both my lawyer and I are certain that the diocese has responsibilities. He was not direct, obviously, and even if not of criminal relevance, serious. Civil responsibilities must now be recognized.”
Which ones are they?
«Not having been vigilant. The crime, as also recognized by the Supreme Court, occurred inside or in the immediate vicinity of the rectory. The religious leaders knew what Father Gratien’s nature was.”
How did that priest behave?
«He had had a morbid relationship with Guerrina for some time. A strange love, because the priest continually frequented prostitutes.”
And what does the diocese have to do with it?
«We asked for damages from the murderer, as directly responsible. And at the same time we sued the diocese of Arezzo-Cortona Sansepolcro and the Order of the Premonstratensian Fathers in Rome, because they were the ones who commissioned that priest and entrusted him with a liturgical function. Therefore, as the jurisprudence states, if the crime was committed in the exercise of the functions, the institution also pays. It also happened with violence against minors. The person responsible and the institution to which he belonged compensated the victims.”
Guerrina’s body was never found and can now be declared presumed dead. Do you still think she’s alive?
«I believed this until the first instance sentence. Then I realized with great pain that she would never come home with me and our son again. I’ve never had any other women after her. I still miss Guerrina. I went through terrible times, I drank even though luckily I came out of the abyss some time ago.”
The investigation also included the hypothesis of suicide.
“Impossible. Guerrina was a loving housewife. She would never have left our son to run away or end it all. And then there’s her toxic relationship with her killer. There is no longer any doubt that it was he who killed her. Now we wait for full justice.”
