An Italian man on Wednesday described how he had killed his seven-year-old son at the weekend, saying he had tricked his grandfather into leaving the boy alone, stuffed a cloth into the boy's mouth to stop him crying out, and slit his throat in "one clean strike".
"On the pretext of giving him a snack I put him on the chair and gave him a clean blow," said 40-year.old Davide Paitoni, telling police how he had cut his son Daniele's throat on Sunday at Morazzone near Varese north of Milan.
The police arrest warrant said the man "told his son they were going to play a trick on his grandad, so he told the old man, who has hearing problems, to wait for him in the room where he was watching TV".
Paitoni then "stuffed a piece of cloth in the boy's mouth to stop him crying out, which leads us to think that the youngster was aware that something terrible was about to happen to him".
After the murder Paitoni then went to another town nearby, Gazzada, and tried to kill his former partner, but only managed to injure her, not seriously.
He fled the scene but was detained soon after.
Police said he put Daniele's body in a wardrobe with a note confessing to the murder.
The man had been twice reported for domestic violence by his wife and had been under house arrest for stabbing a colleague in November but had obtained the green light from a judge to see his son over the New Year holiday.
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