Story By: Kristina Mantaroska, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
An Italian cop has been found guilty and sentenced to five and a half years in prison for raping one of the two American students who he drove home from a nightclub.
Pietro Costa was accused of raping one of the two American students in the city of Florence in September 2017. The unnamed girls were aged 19 and 21 at the time.
Another police officer who was with him, Marco Camuffo, was accused of raping the other girl and was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison on 11th October 2018 after opting for a fast-track trial.
The two officers met the students at a nightclub in Piazzale Michelangelo and accompanied them home in their police car, with both girls getting into the car in a state of alcoholic intoxication.
After arriving at the girl’s block of flats in Borgo Santi Apostoli, the officers walked into the building with the girls and had sexual intercourse with them, taking advantage of their state of drunkenness.
The two officers, who were armed with guns, raped the two girls by acting in a “sudden and unexpected” way. The two girls reported the incident immediately after it occurred.
Evidence such as DNA on the girl’s clothing confirmed what had happened and both officers admitted to having sexual intercourse with the victims, but always said that the sex was consensual.
Costa, who left the courtroom before the reading of the sentence, was also sentenced to exclusion from public office and ordered to pay compensation for damages against civil parties.
He was ordered to pay an interim amount of 30,000 EUR (25,661 GBP) to the victim and 10,000 EUR (8,555.43 GBP) to the municipality of Florence, the Ministry of Defence and the Carabinieri Corps.
Costa and Camuffo were both permanently removed from the Carabinieri Corps at the end of the disciplinary investigation.
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