(ANSA) - Rome, May 31 - Rome prosecutors on Tuesday requested confessed killer Vincenzo Paduano, 27, remain behind bars on stalking and premeditated murder charges.
Paduano is in solitary confinement and is being watched around the clock after being arrested yesterday for burning his ex-girlfriend, 22-year-old university student Sara Di Pietrantonio, to death in the early hours of Sunday morning.
He reportedly said he is "afraid" in jail, and broke down in tears as he confessed to lying in wait for Di Pietrantonio at her new boyfriend's home, following her by car, forcing her off the road, dousing her and her car with alcohol and lighting it. She managed to escape on foot, but Paduano ran her down and set her on fire too.
Her mother, worried because the young woman failed to show up after texting at 03:00 that she was on her way home, found her charred body behind some bushes a couple of hours later. She was still on fire.
Paduano and Di Pietrantonio began dating two and a half years ago and separated several times, ultimately breaking up for good last week. "I couldn't stand it being over," Paduano reportedly told interrogators.
Since January 2015 Italy has seen 155 femicides, 8,856 battered women cases, and 1,261 cases of stalking - however, 90% of women and girls don't report their abusers in fear of reprisal, according to Telefono Rosa (Pink Telephone) women's hotline president Gabriella Moscatelli.
"The femicide of Sara Di Pietrantonio has shaken the country - its cruelty and atrocity has left even us aghast," said Moscatelli. "But this is exactly why it's time Italy fielded adequate tools and resources. We call on (Reform Minister Maria Elena) Boschi to apply the Istanbul Convention (on violence against women, which was approved by parliament but is still a dead letter".
"There are no more extenuating circumstances for this male chauvinist culture, with which language itself is often impregnated," she said.
The 2011 Council of Europe Convention aims to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence, protect victims, and do away with the impunity of perpetrators. As of May 2016, it has been signed by 42 countries including Italy. "We are talking about a commitment to...gender education, gender equality, and fighting sexism in all its forms," Moscatelli added.