MILAN. Amateur footballers Mattia Lucarelli, son of Cristiano, and his friend Federico Apolloni were sentenced in Milan for the alleged violence they allegedly committed on a 19-year-old American student on the night between 26 and 27 March 2022 in the former’s apartment in the Porta Romana area of Milan. Judge Roberto Crepaldi inflicted on them a sentence of 3 years and 7 months, slightly higher than that requested last April 12 (3 and a half years) by prosecutor Alessia Menegazzo with the indictment in the summary trial. Together with them, three other friends of theirs were sentenced to lesser sentences for the minimal participation in the sexual intercourse that Lucarelli and Apolloni had had with the girl after locking themselves in a room of the house. Gabriele M. was given a sentence of 2 years and 8 months while 2 years and 5 months were given to Giacomo B. and Matteo B.
The young people, all from Livorno, have always professed their innocence, claiming that the student was not so drunk as to not express consent. From the investigations of the Milanese Flying Squad, the testimonies of the girl’s friends and the club’s employees and above all the five videos recorded on the cell phone of one of the other three co-investigators of Lucarelli and Apolloni prove that the five friends would have taken advantage of her drunkenness .
The 19-year-old went dancing with a friend at a nightclub where she drank some cocktails. When she left, around 3 am, she lost sight of her companion and on the street she met the group of Lucarelli and Apolloni who had offered her a ride in their car. On the way, however, the five boys had decided to go to Cristiano’s son’s house. “It’s madness… it’s madness, yes… fifty of them…”, Apolloni said in a video found on one of the suspects’ cell phones. And again, once inside the apartment: “If she calls the police she’ll fuck us all…”. The next morning the young woman was taken back to her house where, in tears, she told her friend everything about her before going to report it to the police station.
“They are devastated because they are normal 20-year-olds,” commented the lawyer Margherita Benedini, who with colleagues Leonardo Cammarata, Beatrice Pozzoli, Francesca Nobili, Giuseppe Ales and Silvia Del Corso, defended the five defendants. Together they were sentenced to pay a provisional compensation of 50 thousand euros to the victim. The reasons will be filed within 90 days.
«We all know that things often don’t go the way they should go. That’s life. We knew that the biggest obstacle to face would be the first given the media outcry surrounding the whole issue, we knew that we were not fighting with the facts but with a historical moment and the pressure of the media that wants our heads without really investigating thoroughly but stopping at sensational titles to attract attention – wrote Mattia Lucarelli on Instagram. -. Compared to yesterday nothing has changed, we are used to comments, threats and insults by now. However, we must not forget that there are two other degrees of judgment – he added -. It is very clear that it is a defeat, especially because we were hopeful of being able to close this story immediately despite the difficulties.”
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