An Italian court has acquitted a young man accused of murdering his dad after the judges ruled he had killed him in an attempt to defend his mother from a violent assault.

The Court of Assizes in the city of Turin in the Italian region of Piedmont acquitted 20-year-old Alex Pompa on Thursday, 24th November.

He was accused of the murder of his father, Giuseppe, who was killed in the nearby town of Collegno on 30th April last year.

The young man allegedly stabbed his father “dozens” of times before calling the emergency services himself. However, his dad was pronounced dead at the scene.

Now, Alex has walked away a free man after the judges ruled he had killed his father to protect his mother from a particularly bad episode of domestic violence.

Local media including Fanpage reported that the man frequently beat his wife, who said of her son in the courtroom: “If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here today.”

The judges concluded that the young man’s actions, therefore, “(did) not constitute a crime”.

Testimony from the accused’s mother, brother, and the accused himself was key in his acquittal, with the young man telling the judges: “My father was a sick man, obsessed with jealousy and control over my mother.”

Court documents catalogued over 300 threats directed by the dad towards his wife and children.

Giuseppe Pompa, 52, was said to be so violent that Alex and his brother, Loris, has long since stopped going out at night for fear of leaving their mother alone with him.

And when the COVID-19 lockdown arrived in March, the violence reportedly only got worse.

On the night of the crime, Giuseppe arrived home from work angry and drank several glasses of wine before taking out his frustration on his wife, prompting Alex to grab a knife and stab his dad numerous times.

He immediately confessed his actions to the police, and the Court of Review accepted his lawyers’ request to allow him to serve his custody period under house arrest.

In an interview with La Repubblica following his acquittal, he said: “Now I just want to go home and get my life back. See the Inter match, have dinner with my family. Take a trip, a normal life.”