Outcry in Italy: Lockdown ‘anxiety’ ignored, says court as it overturns life sentence for girlfriend killer

Antonio De Pace murdered Lorena Quaranta in a small villa in the province of Messina during lockdown

Italy’s highest court has overturned the life sentence of a man convicted of killing his girlfriend because it failed to take account of the “anxiety” caused by the pandemic.

Antonio De Pace strangled Lorena Quaranta, a 27-year-old medical student from the small Sicilian town of Favara, during the first wave of the pandemic in March 2020.

De Pace, a nurse, confessed to the murder, which took place during lockdown in a villa in Furci Siculo, in the province of Messina.

The Court of Cassation De Pace’s life sentence did not consider the impact of Covid or its effect on “the state of anxiety of which he was prey”.

The judges said the lower court failed to “examine whether the specific nature of the situation, the Covid period and the difficulty in remedying it, constituted factors affecting the extent of criminal liability”.

While the conviction remains, the Court of Cassation has ordered a regional appeals court in Calabria to review the life sentence.

There was an immediate outcry at the decision.

Antonio De Pace strangled his girlfriend. 'We didn't know he was a monster,' said the victim's father

‘It is unjust’

Vincenzo Quaranta, the victim’s father, said the judges were “killing her again” and the family would continue to fight for justice.

“It is unjust,” he told the Italian daily Il Messaggero.

“Lockdown has nothing to do with it. The truth is De Pace had an inferiority complex in relation to my daughter. We didn’t know he was a monster.”

Politicians and women’s activists also criticised the decision. Elisabetta Lancellotta, an MP for the ruling Brothers of Italy party, said: “Covid cannot, and must not, become a mitigating factor, especially for cases of femicide.

“During the pandemic, we witnessed a considerable increase in domestic violence resulting in tragedy.

“Violence against women cannot have mitigating circumstances, out of respect for the victims and their loved ones.”

Mara Carfagna, from the centrist Azione coalition and a former minister for equal opportunities, said: “If we open up to the idea that responsibility is less serious under stress, this is even more upsetting in a case of femicide”.

The Italian Government was one of the first countries in the world to feel the impact of the pandemic and in March 2020, Giuseppe Conte, the then-prime minister, imposed a strict national lockdown restricting the movement of the population except for work or health reasons.

Lorena Quaranta, a medical student, was killed by her boyfriend

‘Dangerous precedent’

The Court of Cassation referred the case to an appeals court in Reggio Calabria for review.

Liliana Lorretu, president of the Italian Society of Forensic Psychiatry, said women had paid a heavy price for violence during the pandemic and the court’s decision set a “dangerous precedent” by reducing the responsibility of the perpetrator.

“A sentence like this seems to affirm that violence in that period was ‘normal’ and therefore not sanctionable,” she said.

Antonella Veltri, president of the Donne in Rete network combating violence against women, said the suggestion that stress was a mitigating factor in the murder was unacceptable.

“Our concern, in the best of hypotheses, is that there is a profound misunderstanding of what male violence against women is all about,” Veltri said.

“Justice will take its course and we hope that it is done quickly.”

Maria Gianquinto, a Messina activist from the Cedav women’s rights group, said the decision failed to recognise the gravity of femicide and the struggle to combat male violence against women.