Harassment of underage student, teacher under house arrest

A minor student at a high school in Ravenna was allegedly sexually assaulted by a teacher at the same institute. The teacher, over 50 years old, was arrested by the police and is under house arrest on charges of aggravated sexual assault. The pre-trial detention order was issued by Gip Andrea Galanti at the request of Prosecutor Stefano Stargiotti, motivated by the risk of reiteration of the crime, and was executed in recent days.

The affair, according to the investigators' reconstruction, took place at the end of 2023 when the teacher allegedly started paying the young girl compliments, jokes, messages and a few gifts: in particular costume jewellery. On other occasions there would also be sexual harassment: at least three incidents were alleged.
The student finally could no longer cope with the behaviour and decided to confide in her mother, to explain why she no longer wanted to go to school. At that point, the specialised section of the mobile squad started the investigation and gathered the elements behind the restrictive measure.
In the interrogation of guarantee, the suspect made spontaneous statements and traced the incident back to misunderstandings, basically saying that his behaviour had been misunderstood, asking for a less afflictive measure. The judge reserved his position on the application.

The school, unaware of everything until the house arrest notice, offered its cooperation to the investigators to shed light on every aspect. The investigators also seized the teacher's mobile phone to see if it might contain any other material of evidential value, so as to strengthen the accusatory picture.