Abuse, violence, deaths and disappearances. In Italy, 2023 is increasingly shaping up as the black year of
child
the. From the rape of Caivano to the kidnapping of little Kata, up to the accident last Saturday, when little Laura Origliasso, 5 years old, was burned alive in her parents’ car, hit by the crash of the Frecce Tricolori plane in Turin . The latest in a series of tragedies involving a minor, against whom the number of crimes exceeded 6 thousand cases in Italy in 2021. A figure never achieved in previous years and which, according to the numbers processed by the Criminal Analysis Service of the Central Criminal Police Directorate of the Department of Public Security, available on the Interior Ministry website, recorded an increase of 8% in 2022 compared to 2020 (5,789 cases) and 89% since 2004 (3,311 cases).
THE LATEST CASES INVOLVING MINORS
On May 28, 2023, Adam Malik, just three years old, was found drowned in a swimming pool in the Villa De Sanctis-Centocelle area, in Rome. Parents complained about the lack of protective grates in the pool.
On June 7, 2023, an 11-month-old girl she was found dead in a car in Rome, in the Cecchignola area. The little girl would have been forgotten in the car by her father, who should have accompanied her to the nursery, where she, however, never arrived.
On June 10, 2023 little Kata Alvarez, five years old, was kidnapped from the former Astor hotel in Florence. For three months, there has been no news of the Peruvian little girl: the Florence Prosecutor’s Office has entered five people in the register of suspects, including two of the little girl’s uncles, one paternal (Edgar Marlon Chicclo Romero) and one maternal (Abel Argenis Alvarez Vasquez , known to all as Dominique). On April 24, 2023, in Fiumicinoa 9-year-old boy risked being kidnapped: the little boy said he was pulled by a man who attempted to put him in the car while he was playing in the driveway of his house. On May 22, 2023, in Piazza Gae Aulenti in Milana father managed to foil the attempted kidnapping of his two-year-old child by a 22-year-old of Moroccan origins with psychiatric problems.
On June 14, 2023 Manuel Proietti5 years old, died in the Casalpalocco accident in Rome which involved the Lamborghini SUV of the YouTubers TheBorderline (engaged in a challenge: 50 hours in the car without ever getting out) and the Smart driven by his mother.
On June 27, 2023 Isabel, seven years old, was overwhelmed and killed by a wave in Lido di Classe (Ravenna) while she was playing a few meters from the beach: the tragedy occurred before the eyes of her father Enzo and her little cousin. About two weeks later, on 6 July 2023, in Gragnano (Naples) Serena, 8 years old, died after falling from a motorbike on which she was traveling without a helmet with two adults: a girl who worked as a sales assistant in the girl’s parents’ shop and her boyfriend, who was driving. The little girl apparently got up immediately after the fall and then suddenly fell to the ground.
On August 17, 2023 little Stephan Bakanev, eight years old was sucked down the drain of a swimming pool at the Terme di Cretone, between Palombara Sabina and Passo Corese in the province of Rome. Rescue attempts were of no avail: the child died in front of the astonished eyes of his family. An incident that in some ways brings to mind that of June 19, 2019,
when Edoardo Bassani, 4 years olddrowned in the ‘Laguna del Sol’ pool in Mirabeach, the Mirabilandia water park.
On September 2, 2023 Aurora, just 45 days old, was found lifeless by her parents in Santa Maria a Vico (Caserta). Signs of burns and bruises were found on the little girl’s body, a detail which she had led to the hypothesis of mistreatment, which was later denied.
On September 11, 2023 Bilal Kurtesi, just eighteen months old, was hit and killed by a car in Portogruaro, in the province of Venice. According to the latest developments emerging from the investigations, the child was killed by a relative, following an incorrect maneuver made with the family car.
On September 16, 2023 Laura Origliasso, 5 years old, died in San Francesco al Campo, near Turin Caselle airport. A Frecce Tricolori aircraft, during take-off, crashed and, in the crash, involved the car in which Laura’s father, mother and twelve-year-old brother were travelling: everyone was injured, the little girl lost her life .
In addition to the tragic deaths, many cases of child abuse have been recorded this year. At the beginning of July this year, two cousins aged 11 and 12 they were raped by a group of teenagers: six boys, almost all minors. The pack deceived them into an isolated shed in the Caivano Green Park, where they took turns abusing them. In the same neighborhood, in 2014, 6-year-old Fortuna Loffredo died: raped and then made to fall from the eighth floor of the building where she lived.
On May 24, 2023, in Bolognaa man was arrested for having sexually abused his niece, a 7-year-old girl: it was the girl’s mother who discovered it and reported it. March 2, 2023 a man was reported in Fasano (Brindisi) for multiple aggravated sexual violence. For four years he raped one of his relatives, who was 5 years old at the time: “It’s our secret, you mustn’t tell anyone”, he allegedly told her. The story only came to light 5 years later.
Of all the abuses committed against minors and reported in the report on the Interior Ministry website, it appears that 64% of the victims were girls and boys. The report, updated to November 2022, also shows how cases of gang sexual violence went from 1,838 cases in 2021 to 2,196 in 2022, an increase of 19%.
