Sexual violence against two girls in Perugia, an eighty-year-old risks a 4-year sentence

PERUGIA – Four years and 4 months of sentence, which would have been six and a half without the choice of the abbreviated trial. Four years and 4 months requested by the prosecutor for having traumatized two elementary school girls who, at not even 9 years old, first suffered his attentions and then had the courage to report him for aggravated sexual violence. This is the accusation for which an eighty-year-old resident of Perugia, AQ, is on trial before judge Natalia Giubilei, to answer for the heavy charges against him after the disturbing stories of the two little girls. Stories that speak of the abuse suffered during lunch breaks at school, suffered by the man – known and therefore trusted – who carried out surveillance activities in that city institution.

The eighty-year-old deputy prosecutor Franco Bettini accuses the “touching of the private parts and thighs”, the “kisses on the mouth” and the “massages on the shoulders and back” by the man who with “sudden moves” would have “taken advantage of the gaming context during the lunch break in school”. The prosecutor then speaks of “multiple executive acts of the same criminal plan and with multiple actions”, therefore of multiple episodes, which earned him the challenge of the continuation. Episodes which, despite their very young age, alarmed the girls and convinced them to inform their mother and father, even if in tears and with their faces burning with shame: hence the complaint, the investigations up to the request for postponement in judgment. With the admission of the abbreviated procedure conditional on the examination of two witnesses, a janitor and an auxiliary of a voluntary association.
The elderly man, assisted by the lawyer Teresa Giurgola, was removed from the school immediately after the complaint, but has always maintained that it was an affectionate attitude towards the children he had been called to supervise. Then underlining the divergent versions provided by the girls, the initial one and the one collected during the evidentiary incident before the investigating judge Piercarlo Frabotta last summer. The facts relate to just over a year ago, in March 2023, when the little girls were in third grade and the news created great dismay and concern among the children’s parents and families. And rather than affection for deputy prosecutor Bettini, it is instead a question of “violence and abuse of authority”. «The framework of elements against the suspect in relation to the commission of the crime of aggravated sexual violence – a note from the chief prosecutor Raffaele Cantone explained at the time – is evident from the content of the complaint lodged by the parents of the offended minors and by the audio-recorded statements made by them during the protected hearing”. In short, those stories crystallized in the evidentiary incident to prevent the little ones from reliving the shame and fear expressed in the complaint. Representing their parents in the courtroom, in fact, are the lawyers Marco Piazzai and Daniele Fantini, who in past hearings obtained the status of civil party and had already made a request for compensation of one hundred thousand euros months ago, fifty thousand for each victim. And Judge Giubilei will also have to rule on this at the next hearing. After the sentencing requests made yesterday by prosecutor Bettini, we return to the courtroom on June 4th, with the defense’s replies, which insists with conviction on the evidently misunderstood affectionate attitudes, followed by the decision. Which in any case already starts with the discount.

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