Bassano, Beatrice died due to the stoppage of the mechanical respirator: the prosecutor’s office asks for a trial for her mother

He just had 14 years old Beatrice Berti when, on the night of June 26, 2021, the mechanical respirator to which she was attached 24 hours a day has stopped working and she died in her sleep. The Vicenza prosecutor’s office immediately opened an investigation into the girl’s death manslaughter case and the only name to have been entered in the register of suspects was that of mother, Valentina Pasini, called to answer for the death of her teenage daughter suffering from a rare genetic pathology. The investigations concluded in 2022, but only yesterday the parties met in front of the judge for the preliminary hearing of Vicenza Antonella Crea. The deputy prosecutor Camilla Menegoni requested the indictment of Beatrice’s mother, while the lawyer Dario Lunardon, who defends the woman, argued that the case should be dismissed. The judge has reserved time to decide, the next hearing has been set for autumn.

The defense: dismiss

«I advanced the request not to proceed – states the lawyer Lunardon – presenting a sentence of the constitutional court which deals with the “natural punishment”, which provides that there are conditions of non-punishment every time a person is called to answer for a negligent crime against a close family member. Natural punishment it is of such intensity that it would not make sense for the State to impose a further sentence.” A sentence that would bring the fact to the fore that the loss of a loved one due to one’s own conduct is a personal tragedy before being a criminal matter and that this drama, in itself, is a punishment. «Especially in this case – adds the lawyer – when we are talking about the closest possible emotional bond: that between a mother and a daughter».

The accusations

There are two specific accusations made against her mother, who together with Beatrice supported numerous battles against architectural barriers (the girl dreamed of an accessible city starting from the parks). The first concerns the failure to connect the respirator to electricityas it would stop working because the battery had run out; while the second is linked to the fact that the woman did not want to keep her daughter in hospital overnight. In fact, the evening before the death of the fourteen-year-old, the girl had fainted and had been to the San Bassiano emergency room. Here the pediatric doctors would have been ready to admit her, while her mother would have preferred to take her daughter home. «This alleged refusal of hospitalization does not exist – concludes the lawyer Lunardon – there is a discharge signed by the hospital on the basis of a consultation done with the pediatric hospice of Padua where Beatrice had been treated for a long time.”

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