Incest and sex abuse are normal in parts of Campania, the head of the children's watchdog for the southern Italian region, Cesare Romano, said Tuesday. Romano cited the Salicelle quarter in Afragola, the Madonnelle quarter in Acerra, some quarters in Naples and Caivano near Naples where a suspected paedophile ring is being exposed after at least one child was raped and murdered. "We have direct and indirect testimony that there are whole areas, in very critical quarters, in which sexual abuse and incest has been elevated to normality," said Romano, presenting a report containing an estimated 200 cases of maltreatment and violence "hidden" within domestic situations.
In the Caivano case, a 13-year-old girl witness told a court earlier this month that prime suspect Raimondo 'Tito' Caputo killed six-year-old Fortuna Loffredo in 2014. "It was Tito who killed Fortuna", she said. Caputo, who is under investigation for murder, has accused of the murder his girlfriend and her daughter, Loffredo's best friend.
Caputo, 44, is the only suspect in the repeated sexual assault and ultimate killing of Loffredo, who fell from a balcony to her death on June 24, 2014. His live-in girlfriend, who is also in custody on suspicion of being an accomplice to Caputo's sexual abuse of her own young daughters, tried to hang herself in her cell in May. Caputo swallowed a razor blade during visiting hours May 31 but was not injured. Testimony from children living in the apartment complex where Fortuna lived, was repeatedly raped, and ultimately died have led the Loffredo family and others connected to the investigation to suspect a wider pedophile ring may be at work there.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
