A 43-year-old Moroccan man residing in Bottanuco has been arrested following a violent attack on a 26-year-old woman that included assault with a saber and repeated cases of rape over the course of a single night.
The victim, who was reportedly drugged by the suspect, regained consciousness on the Saturday afternoon following the attack. She woke up on the man’s bed without clothing on her lower body, suffering pain throughout her body, a bruise on one temple, a hot wax burn on one hand, lower back pain, scratches and swelling. With no memory of what had happened in the preceding hours, she immediately fled.
She grabbed the first clothes she could find, picked up an old Motorola phone she spotted, went out into the street and called emergency services.
She then told medical workers at the Pope John XXIII Hospital what she could remember. Staff identified traces of sexual violence and kept her hospitalized for several days. The Carabinieri of Osio Sotto, who had arrived alongside the ambulance, also took her account — including her recollection of having seen large quantities of drugs on the premises, according to Italian news outlet Corriere del Sera.
Investigators were able to piece together what happened to the woman on the evening of Feb. 27, when the woman went with an acquaintance to visit the Moroccan man. His full role in arranging the encounter is still being investigated.
The suspect, identified as H.M., initially appeared friendly, but his demeanor changed abruptly when the woman declined his requests — to drink green tea, take drugs, and take a shower with him. He threw a glass object at her, struck her in the side with an iron object, and dragged her to the bathroom, where he attempted to persuade her to shower with him. It is at this point that the woman’s memory went completely blank.
Investigators believe she was given a substance without her knowledge. It was during this period that she was repeatedly raped.
On Saturday evening, officers visited the suspect’s home in Bottanuco and found him there along with 82 grams of cocaine, 10 grams of hashish, packaging materials, and €730 in cash believed to be proceeds from drug dealing. Also recovered were two sabers, each approximately one meter long, one of which is believed to have been used to beat the victim. The woman’s jeans and leather jacket were still on the floor — the trousers bore biological traces consistent with semen. The man was arrested on the spot.
The man has a long criminal history. In fact, he had been arrested just five months earlier in the Milan area on an identical sexual assault charge and features a lengthy criminal record, including drug offenses, threats, receiving stolen goods, and weapons possession.
The suspect denied all charges. He claimed to have no connection to the drugs, suggesting someone had planted them in his home to set him up. On the question of sexual violence, he initially stated he had taken pity on the woman because she had already arrived with injuries. When confronted with the forensic evidence found on her clothing, he conceded that he had given the woman only “a few kisses and hugs.”
Investigating judge Luca Bonifacio found this account entirely unconvincing and ordered pretrial detention. The judge cited “concrete danger of repetition of the crime.” The suspect’s profile was described as “alarming not only for the manner of the violence, but also for the presence of a recent police precedent for similar events.”
The judge noted that detention was the only answer for the defendant’s “irrepressible antisocial impulses.”
More broadly speaking, foreigners commit 44 percent of all cases of sexual violence in Italy, while only representing 9 percent of the population.
