BARI – The civil case initiated by Salvatore Vassalli’s daughter against the Bari physiotherapist Mauro Di Giacomo, killed on 18 December last under his home in Via Tauro, in the Poggiofranco district, has been formally interrupted. The judge of the Civil Court of Trani Claudio Di Giacinto issued the provision in the last few hours, taking note of the death of the defendant. In these cases, as required by law, the process is interrupted, but there is the possibility that the case can be resumed within three months against the heirs. A decision that will be up to the daughter of the carpenter from Canosa, arrested last Thursday by the flying squad agents on charges of shooting the professional.
According to investigators, this is precisely the motive for the murder: Vassalli would have acted moved by a feeling of hatred, resentment and frustration towards the victim, held responsible for his daughter’s physical and moral suffering.
The physiotherapy session dates back to 5 September 2019: the girl claims to have suffered permanent damage following a manipulation carried out by Di Giacomo on the cervical spine. A damage that other specialists have defined as “medullary shock”, following which the young woman – a teacher by profession – would have suffered a real psychological meltdown.
In January 2023 the family’s lawyer had quantified the compensation request at a maximum of 230 thousand euros, subordinately 45 thousand. The plaintiff had claimed that he had suffered “a permanent disability in terms of biological damage of 30%, with the same impact on his ability to work”. The expert witness appointed by the Court, however, had reduced the percentage to 3-4 percent, excluding the psychological damage.
«Vassalli has given up teaching in the north – we read in the appeal – because she is not able to live alone (wash dishes, do household chores, hang out clothes, wash her hair, etc…) forcing her mother for long periods of moving with her to the school in Turin, thus upsetting the life of the whole family. Di Giacomo, however, had always denied “having ever carried out the maneuvers indicated by Vassalli, in relation to whom he claimed to have only implemented so-called “gentle” manipulation practices, scientifically unsuitable for causing consequences such as those complained of and which The physiotherapy session, in reality, had only served to understand the actual clinical picture and therefore to evaluate whether and which treatments were necessary.”
