More men including allegedly
negligent officials must pay for violence against women in
Italy, the nephew of a woman hammered to death by her ex in
Bologna said Thursday.
Alessandra Matteuzzi, 56, was bludgeoned to death with a hammer
and other blunt instruments including a baseball bat by the
27-year-old former boyfriend she had reported to police on
several occasions, Giovanni Padovani.
On the last occasion, at the en of July Matteuzzi reported
Padovani for stalking.
The case has revived criticism of Italian measures protecting
women from violence and alleged police inaction.
"My aunt was a kind person and she didn't deserve all this, I
hope this episode serves to help change things," said the
woman's nephew, Matteo Perini.
"I expect him to rot in jail, but that it won't be just one
individual who pays, otherwise it will happen again".
Like Perini, women's rights and domestic abuse activists in
Italy have called for those who failed to act to protect
Matteuzzi to pay for their alleged negligence.
Padovani has been arrested for the aggravated murder of
Matteuzzi.
The alleged femicide took place in the courtyard of her condo in
via dell'Arcoveggio in the Emilian capital.
Matteuzzi was still conscious when medics arrived but died in
hospital of massive head injuries. An autopsy has been ordered.
Matteuzzi had last reported Padovani at the end of July, after
their relationship ended a few months earlier, police said. She
said he had been stalking her, judicial sources said.
Padovani is a lower-tier Italian soccer player and former model.
He is from Senigallia, in the province of Ancona in Marche.
He has played for various teams in Serie C and D including
Foligno, Troina, and Giarre.
He is currently with Sancataldese, another Sicilian Serie D team
like Giarre.
Padovani is thought to have flown to Bologna from Sicily Tuesday
and to have waited for his alleged victim under her flat.
Matteuzzi was on the phone with her sister when she was
attacked, the sister told Tgr Rai Emilia-Romagna.
"She got out of her car and started screaming: 'No Giovanni, no,
I beg you, help.' I was on the phone. I immediately called the
Carabinieri who arrived straight away. I live 30km away. In the
end he beat her to death", she said in tears.
Italy has so far this year seen one femicide every three days
with the victims being exes, girlfriends, mothers and sisters.
Anti domestic abuse group D.i.Re-Donne in Rete President
Antonella Veltri said "this umpteenth femicide shows that the
institutions have given a wholly inadequate response to the
crisis, and they do not correctly apply existing provisions".
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