Filippo Turetta on Tuesday got life imprisonment for murdering his ex girlfriend Giulia Cecchettin in November last year in a femicide that shocked Italy for its brutality and the young age of the protagonists and forced a reckoning with the issues of femicide and gender violence in the country.
Turetta, who turned 22 last December, had admitted to stabbing Cecchettin, 22, to death at Fossò, near Venice, on November 11, 2023, days before she was due to graduate from Padua University in biomedical engineering.
Turetta, who was doing the same course as Cecchettin, stabbed her 75 times.
Turetta was present in court on Tuesday as was the victim's father Gino Cecchettin, who is among the civil plaintiffs in the trial.
Cecchettin was reported missing on the day she was murdered after she met up with Turetta and went for a meal with him.
Her body was found in a gully at Val Caltea, near Lake Barcis in Friuli, on November 18, 2023 .
Turetta went on the run after dumping the corpse.
He was tracked down to the side of a road near Leipzig, Germany after he ran out of money and his car ran out of petrol, a week after the murder.
Speaking at her funeral in December, Gino Cecchettin said he hoped his daughter's death might mark a turning point in the fight against gender-based violence in Italy.
Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara, who had already committed to tackling the issue, subsequently sent a circular letter to schools inviting them to get pupils to reflect on his words.
Valditara spurred an outcry by saying the patriarchy was finished in Italy and a rise in sexual violence against women was linked to illegal migration. Giulila's sister Elena responded by saying her sister had been killed by a "nice white Italian".
Premier Giorgia Meloni said there was a "significant" impact of mass illegal immigration on sexual violence against women,
According to 2022 figures, over 90% of Italian female murder victims were killed by Italian males.
Turetta's defence attorney spurred outrage, also, by saying his client didn't deserve a life term because he was "not El Chapo or Pablo Escobar", the Mexican and late Colombian drug lords.
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