Man acquitted after assault on 13-year-old; Meloni: ‘We must press ahead with security, but with certain judgements it’s difficult’

The case is shocking and has provoked a strong reaction from the Government, with the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio sending in inspectors and the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni once again criticising court rulings that undermine public safety: A 42-year-old man originally from Bangladesh sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in his convenience shop in Madonna di Campagna, on the northern outskirts of Turin; he was arrested and then released by the investigating magistrate after just two nights in custody because ‘he proved cooperative’.

The news, which broke in the morning press, is doing the rounds on social media, sparking widespread anger and dismay. This is partly because the assault – reported by the 13-year-old girl, who immediately rang her mother and waited on the pavement for a friend to arrive – was captured on CCTV, which had even recorded another assault, against an adult woman, committed by the same man just 40 minutes earlier.

Yet, after just two nights in a cell at Lorusso e Cutugno prison and against the public prosecutor’s advice, the arrest was not upheld and the shopkeeper was released. The investigating magistrate ruled that the man had ‘shown remorse’; he had handed over the footage from the shop’s internal CCTV cameras to the police himself and, during the validation hearing, had expressed his ‘regret’, whilst exercising his right to remain silent. Furthermore, in the judge’s view, the ‘trauma of the arrest’ could serve as a sufficient deterrent.

The wave of outrage cuts across the board: women, first and foremost, are protesting against the judge’s blatant (and, sadly, all too common) downplaying of the violence. Outside Turin police headquarters, a protest is taking place under the slogan ‘Let’s shut down the paedophile market’, organised by representatives of Fdi, led by the deputy group leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Augusta Montaruli, and the vice-president of the Piedmont Region, Maurizio Marrone, who denounce as ‘unacceptable’ the fact that the man can return to work as if nothing had happened. PD MPs on the Femicide Committee describe it as a ‘very serious case’. The M5S promises to table a parliamentary question.

Nordio has decided to send inspectors to the Turin court to carry out investigations, earning the praise of the League’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini , who is taking the opportunity to revive the proposal for chemical castration. “I note that the investigating judge’s decision falls within the scope of the judiciary’s autonomy and independence, in which I cannot and must not interfere,” clarifies Nordio. “Nevertheless, given the exceptional nature of the case and the public alarm it has caused, I have ordered inspectors to be sent to gather all relevant information.”