Serial killer Minghella in '98 cold case (3)

(ANSA) - Turin, February 20 - Serial killer of prostitutes Maurizio Minghella, serving 131 years in jail, was sent to trial Monday for a 19-year-old cold case regarding Floreta Islami, an Albanian sex worker strangled to death with a scarf in a field outside Rivoli near Turin on 14 February 1998. Minghella, 58, was served a warrant in Pavia prison when the case was reopened last year.
    Born in Genoa, Minghella was a one-time amateur boxer and construction worker who as a young man loved going to night clubs and dance halls.
    He was sentenced to life for multiple homicide in 1978 but in 1995 he was granted limited parole which allowed him to work at a church-sponsored cooperative in Turin. During this time he established a relationship with a woman with whom he had a child. However, he was also frequenting prostitutes on the city's outskirts, robbing them and in at least four cases murdering them. Minghella was arrested in 2001 for murder but refused to defend himself in court because he believed he was the victim of a plot. He was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 131 years in prison.
    photo: Minghella in 1979