Convicted pedophile sent to trial again

(ANSA) - Florence, September 22 - A Florence judge on Tuesday sent a convicted pedophile to trial on fresh charges of child sexual abuse. Rodolfo Fiesoli, who founded a rural institute for troubled kids in the Tuscan valley of Mugello called Il Forteto in the 1970s, was sentenced in June this year to 17 and a half years in prison for child sexual abuse, cruelty to children, and group violence.
    Forteto ideologue Luigi Goffredi was sentenced to eight years on the same charges in a trial of first instance.
    The convicts "imposed cruel and arbitrary rules on the minors placed in their care," the judges wrote in their motivation for those verdicts.
    Another 16 defendants got sentences ranging from three to seven years, while seven others were acquitted.
    The guilty were also sentenced to pay 1.26 million euros in damages to the victims.
    The new trial was ordered based on testimony by one of the witnesses at the trial of first instance, who was placed in care at Il Forteto in 2003.
    Prosecutors say Fiesoli repeatedly sexually abused the witness ever since his arrival there, at the age of 11.