ANSA) - Milan, June 19 - Ad man Giuseppe Pellicanò got life
Monday for causing a Milan kitchen gas blast last June that
killed his former partner Micaela Masella and a neighbouring
couple from Marche, Chiara Magnamassa and Riccardo Maglianesi,
and also seriously burned his two daughters.
In January a psychological assessment of Pellicano',
presented by the defence, found that the man was "partially
insane" at the time of the crime.
But the judge rejected the the assessment, which could have
led to a reduction in his sentence due to diminished
responsibility.
Pellicano' had previously confessed in front of the
preliminary investigative judge after his arrest on July 1 that
he had unscrewed the gas tube, causing the explosion in the
building.
However, during questioning he had said that he remembered
doing so in "photograms", in part due to the pharmaceuticals he
took regularly to treat insomnia and anxiety.
He was reportedly suffering from depression after separating
from his former partner, Masella, who had started seeing someone
else.
Pellicano' nevertheless continued to live in the same home
with her and their two daughters.
The lawyers of Masella's family and those of the families of
the young Marche-born couple killed in the blast, Magnamassa and
Maglianesi, appointed consultants who challenged the psychiatric
assessment.
If Pellicanò had been entirely insane at the time of the
crime, he would have been acquitted.
photo: Pellicanò with his then wife
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