Another night of terror for the 20-year-old rape victim in Palermo: “They were shouting at me: we’ll kill you”

Last Updated: April 2, 2024

Un'altra notte da incubo per la ventenne stuprata a Palermo: «Mi gridavano: ti ammazziamo»

Last July 7, she had been gang-raped in Palermo in a hidden place in the Foro Italico, near the port, an abandoned construction site where seven boys had taken her, at night, to abuse her. Yesterday, the twenty-year-old who had reported her rapists (now in prison) was confronted by a young man and the boy’s mother, after she had moved from a bar in via Maqueda to the nearby district of Ballarò with her boyfriend.

They threatened her with a knife and then dragged her to their home. The twenty-year-old, questioned during the rape investigation, had revealed to the investigators that she had been a victim of another violence before that nightmare night last summer, which had led the magistrates to investigate further and take action against the young man, the same one who tried to take revenge on her last night.

The girl’s boyfriend, also threatened, around midnight ran to warn the Carabinieri in Piazza Verdi, and shortly after the two attackers showed up at the same barracks. The prosecutor’s office has opened a file for private violence. “They shouted at me: we’ll kill you, as they beat me and forcibly took me to their home,” the girl told the Carabinieri. And the boyfriend describes moments of fear: “They pointed a knife at us. I was immobilized. I wanted to call the police, but even the people in the square advised me against it, because that boy was armed and could attack her.”

The attacker, arriving by car in Piazza Ballarò, notices the girl in the crowd and starts insulting her. After a brief exchange of words, it seemed all over, but after driving away, he returned on foot with his mother and the nightmare began.

About an hour later, everyone ended up at the barracks, where they stayed all night. When the girl finally returned home in the morning, she told her aunt – with whom she lives – that the two, mother and son, were shouting at her: “You ruined our lives,” as they beat her and threatened her with death. Until the decision to take her to the barracks with them to make her change her version of the violence she had declared to have suffered in the spring of a year ago.

The Carabinieri are reviewing the cameras in the area where the assault took place. The girl has been taken back to a protected location, as had happened after the rape last July, to protect her from further threats,” says lawyer Carla Garofalo, who was unable to meet her client because she was immediately transferred from Palermo for security reasons.

The lawyer recalls that on April 19 there will be a preliminary hearing for the six adults under investigation for the rape on July 7, who have requested an expedited trial. A month ago, the juvenile court sentenced, with an expedited trial, to eight years and eight months, the seventh member of the gang, who at the time of the events had not yet turned 18.