“I don’t remember what happened the day my mother died and when I then attempted suicide. My mother wasn’t well and that morning I went out to smoke a cigarette. I have a hole in my memory I don’t remember anything. Then I found myself in hospital and there I learned of mother’s death. For days I then heard on television that she had been strangled.”
This is the story, told today in the Court of Assizes in Lanciano (Ch), by Francesco Rotunno, 65 years old, accused of having strangled the mother of Cesira Bambina Damiani with a rough lace or a scarf in Casoli (Ch). , 88 years old, who was bedridden and was almost completely blind. It was February 12, 2023 and the crime was committed in their home.
Regarding his mental blackout, the accused responds to the President of the Court, Giovanni Nappi: “I looked for explanations and I still ask myself, but I can’t find answers.” Chief prosecutor Mirvana Di Serio also asks him about the note with the apology found on a table and Rotunno says: “I wrote it previously, in December, I was depressed after the separation, divorce and other problems. I had also lost my citizenship income and we lived on only my mother’s pension. Often we didn’t make it to the end of the month, paying rent, carer and care costs. I blamed myself for my failures, also because I wasn’t able to take good care of my mother, who was everything to me: she acted as my mother and father.”
The prosecutor also asks him if his mother wore a scarf and Rotunno specifies: “Yes, she used it, she was always sensitive to the cold, she always wore it and was comfortable.” The defender Silvana Vassalli will present a defense brief to the Court enclosing various medical certificates and will renew the request for mental infirmity and inability to understand and want.
“From the medical documentation it appears that he has psychotic amnesia. He doesn’t even remember seeing the photos with his dead mother nor the place where he was found injured after the assassination”, states the lawyer. The sentence has been set for June 14th. 19 Apr. 2024
WALTER BERGHELLA
@REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED
Tags: strangled mother Casoli dont remember day ..
