A Florence appeals court on
Thursday upheld a 20-year sentence for a 55-year-old plumber for
the rape, torture and murder of a 26-year-old Romanian sex
worker in May 2014.
The prosecution had sought a life sentence for Riccardo
Viti, who left the body of Andrea Cristina Zamfir strapped to an
iron bar in a Crucifixion-like pose under a freeway bridge on
the outskirts of Florence.
Florence police caught the so-called Crucifixion killer,
who had been stalking the Tuscan capital for 10 years, just days
after the grisly discovery was made.
Viti is suspected of carrying out as many as nine other
rapes of sex workers, whose statements led police to the
suspect.
His DNA was found on three other rape victims as well as on
Zamfir.
Viti - whom neighbours described as "polite but a bit
weird" - is also suspected in an unspecified number of
slayings in and near the Tuscan city spanning 10 years, judicial
sources said.
The killer reportedly told police at the time of his arrest
he hoped his latest victim would survive, like others he had
raped and "crucified."
"I screwed up," Viti said after police burst into his home
in Florence where he lived with his elderly parents.
"I hoped she would be found like the others".
Inside Viti's home police found a roll of green-and-white
adhesive tape of the kind used to tie up Zamfir.
The tape carried the coat of arms of the Careggi University
hospital where Viti's wife worked.
Viti was first sentenced in a September 2015 fast-track
trial, a criminal proceeding in which defendants admit guilt in
exchange for a reduced sentence.
"I'm sorry," Viti told the court just before sentencing.
"Unfortunately I am responsible for this death. I never
dreamed that this person could die. I humbly ask forgiveness. I
am broken up over what happened," he said.
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