«Suddenly he stood up, stood between the front seats, at the level of the gearbox, put his hand on my leg and pulled my hair. Then he blocked me. He demanded a relationship. I remember his cruel voice. I begged him to leave me alone. But he did nothing. I was scared for my safety.” Thus begins, at 7.15am on 8 May 2015, the nightmare of Margherita (invented name, ed.), 53 years old, the taxi driver raped by Simone Borgese.
The dramatic deposition
She tells it in a dramatic deposition to the trial judges: the accused, later sentenced to seven years and six months in prison, is the same man arrested yesterday on the same charge as nine years ago. Yesterday you said: «Why isn’t he in prison? He is dangerous and a coward.”
It is 6.30 in the morning when Borgese gets into Margherita’s taxi. «I am driving along Via Aurelia in my Dacia Lodgy, in the direction of Piazza Irnerio. I remember stopping for a red light at a church, near the Postiglione restaurant. A man signals me to stop. He gets in the car, he has a gym bag with him.” Margherita – assisted as a civil party by the lawyer Cristian Malaguti together with his colleague Felicia D’Amico of the Bon’t Worry association – the story continues: «Once he got on board he asked me to take him to Ponte Galeria, without however providing a precise address.
During the ride he complains that no bus had passed until that moment, for ithe rest remains silent, writing a few messages on your cell phone. I wasn’t worried, he still seemed calm.” Having arrived at Ponte Galeria at the crossroads with Via Portuense, Borgese starts talking to her again: «she asks me to show him the road to follow, because she hadn’t yet given me a precise address. He finally gives me directions, we go towards Fiumicino and reach Piana del Sole, a place where I have never set foot before.” The story becomes dramatic: «he tells me to go back because he got distracted, then he makes me turn left, then he tells me to go back because he was wrong. The road becomes dirt.”
An isolated place, without cars
He makes me walk it for a kilometre. I arrive in a square. She makes me stop and asks me the fare. There’s nothing around me, it’s an isolated place, no cars pass by.” It is the moment in which Borgese attacks her: «she looks out between the front seats, at the height of the gearbox. She blocks me. She hits me with her hand on the left side of my face. She puts her hands in the neckline of my shirt ». She is paralyzed: «she unbuttons my trousers and in a cruel tone of voice, he threatens me.” Margherita starts speaking again: «I beg him, but he is oblivious to my prayers and my cries». The worst is yet to come: «he forced me to have intercourse. I was terrified, I feared for my safety.” Borgese has no mercy: «Always with a bad tone of voice, he wants my money, I beg him to let me go. He takes my wallet with 70 euros and the car keys. I grab him by the shirt. But he manages to escape.”
