Domestic violence, signs are sufficient for arrest in flagrante delicto

The red marks on the collar of the alleged victim and her accounts of the violence she had suffered, are useful elements to trigger the quasi-flagrancy and validate the arrest for the crime of family abuse. Although an apparent calm reigned in the house. The Court of Cassation upheld the public prosecutor's appeal against the Gip's refusal to validate the arrest of the man who had been found calm when the Carabinieri arrived, despite the disorder in the flat and the "visible signs of redness" on the neck of his partner, who had told the police that she had been beaten several times, as proven by previous complaints.

The officers had arrested him, but the initiative had not been shared by the judge for preliminary investigations who, in the absence of serious injuries and in the presence of the described picture, had denied that there was the requirement of quasi-flagrancy, indispensable for the measure taken. For the Gip, at most, non-aggravated injuries could be assumed, for which arrest is excluded. The man was therefore banned from approaching the injured party and an electronic bracelet was imposed. The Supreme Court took a different view, accepting the prosecution's argument and validating the arrest. For the Court of Cassation, arrest in quasi-flagrancy is possible in a case such as the one examined, in which the statements made by the woman in the immediate aftermath and her previous complaints weigh heavily. All elements supporting the habitual nature of the crime of ill-treatment in the family.