Serious episode of attempted sexual violence in the middle of the night and in the heart of the historic city centre. The incident happened in Piazza Ciardi, near the Porta al Serraglio station, shortly after 4.30 in the morning. The protagonists are a 52-year-old woman, victim of the attack which fortunately did not turn into actual sexual violence, and a thirty-year-old Nigerian national, who was eventually arrested. The foreigner’s will did not materialize thanks to the timely intervention of the State Police, alerted by a phone call to the police station switchboard.
According to what was reconstructed by the police officers, the woman, a Russian resident in Pistoia, was crossing Piazza Ciardi when she was approached by the Nigerian. The thirty-year-old immediately showed his intentions that were not reciprocated by the woman. The 52-year-old thus tried to defend herself from the various approaches made by the foreigner, who was trying in every way to have sexual intercourse with the woman.
At a certain point, seeing the resistance offered by the victim, the man pushed her and made her fall to the ground. At this point he also tried to undo the belt of the pants worn by the 52-year-old. A scene that apparently, despite the time, did not go unnoticed by some of the residents of the populated area.
So when they arrived in Piazza Ciardi, the patrol police found the Nigerian with his trousers down and the woman lying next to him.
With no small amount of effort and difficulty, the officers intervened to stop the man, who immediately resisted during the arrest phase. In fact, the thirty-year-old, who, according to the police database, is a Nigerian citizen with no fixed abode, suffering from deafness, and already burdened by criminal and police records for threatening and resisting a public official, hit the intervening officers with kicks and punches. He also attacked one of the officers, biting him on the hands.
The woman, understandably shocked by her narrow escape, declared to the police that she intended to report the incident, so much so that she immediately went to the police station to proceed against her attacker.
A hectic night that ended with the arrest of the thirty-year-old for sexual assault, assault and resisting a public official.
By order of the magistrate on duty he was transferred to the Dogaia prison, where he will remain awaiting the arrest validation procedure. It is not the first time that Piazza Ciardi and its surroundings have become a scene of tension: in the early afternoon of November 24th a huge brawl broke out. A group of North Africans clashed in the garden with blows and shouts. Luckily, at the Serraglio station the almost daily checks ordered by the police were underway, so at the first report five patrol cars intervened in the square, separating the two groups, even if with difficulty.
