Head shots

ROME (21th july) - A FRENCH tourist beat his four-year-old daughter's head against the stone base of a Rome monument so hard she was left in a coma, police said yesterday. Bambino Gesu paediatric hospital said she had suffered severe head injuries and was in a coma. Her condition was last night described as "critical but stable".

Blood still stained the pavement of the Altar of the Nation hours after the girl was beaten late on Saturday night.

Carabinieri Lieutenant-Colonel Antonello Casarsa said the man, identified as Julien Monnet, 37, repeatedly struck the head of his daughter, Luna, against the stone after a traffic officer asked to see some identification.

A Canadian tourist had told police that Monnet had been acting strangely toward the girl.

"He was holding the child in an unhealthy way. She was crying and screaming," the traffic officer, Anna Esposito, later told Italian state TV. When approached Monnet quickened his step, said Ms Esposito, then said something she couldn't understand when she asked him what he was doing.

"He was holding the girl by her arm and then started striking her head against the stone," she said.

Ms Esposito said the Canadian had then grabbed the child while she struggled to hold Monnet and called for help. "He was like a furious beast," Ms Esposito said.

Monnet was then surrounded by passers-by. He tried to break free and attempted to strike his own head on the monument, but onlookers prevented him, said Lt-Col Casarsa.

He said that a search had revealed medicine in Monnet's backpack which suggested he had been undergoing psychiatric treatment.

He added that Monnet lived with the child's mother near Paris. Police contacted her on holiday in Turkey from where she was flying to Rome. She told police she believed Monnet and her daughter were still in France.

Monnet was arrested and taken to Regina Coeli jail.

The woman in jeans has cropped hair and a pained look in her eyes. There’s a big red heart on her canary yellow top. This is a thumbnail portrait of a distraught young mother determined to protect her privacy. Fabienne Verdeille, 32, is the partner of Julien Monnet, the 37-year-old Frenchman who on Saturday evening beat his daughter Luna into unconsciousness. Ms Verdeille arrived in Rome at 1 pm yesterday from Turkey, where she had been holidaying with her sister, after a stop in Paris to pick up her mother and her mother’s partner.

As she started out on her agonizing tour of Rome’s hospitals, police stations and carabinieri barracks, Ms Verdeille requested and obtained a news blackout on the incident. This means it will be difficult to reconstruct events leading up to Saturday evening’s tragedy in Piazza Venezia. Julien Monnet, the IT technician who is Ms Verdeille’s partner and Luna’s father, has been charged with attempted murder. He will be questioned by magistrates tomorrow.
“It’s a human tragedy and a family tragedy”, was all Ms Verdeille had to say to reporters. She explicitly requested that her pain should be respected, in the hope of discouraging over-inquisitive reporters and obsessive media attention. “This isn’t some housewife from the banlieues”, commented on eye witness.



It is known that Ms Verdeille confirmed to carabinieri that Mr Monnet has suffered mental disturbances and has been taking medication for some time.

(Source: ilmessaggero.it, scotsman.com, corriere.it)

Simply

That child has lost everything, books and shoes
Don Giovanni D'Ercole - Priest, charitable institution Don Orione

The face of a woman struck by a murderous hand and a written: "if it were your mother, your sister or your daughter ... Expel the Roma. Immediately!" What more effective way of building people distrust, and why not hatred. This billboard advertising that has invaded the city of Rome, I thought when ruspe the Municipality have destroyed the barracks of a Romanian camp on the outskirts of Rome, near the place where he was killed by a Romanian woman. Indeed, it was after that dramatic episode that moved quickly across the government, the City and the press. Via the Romanians. I said that I thought the billboard were destroyed because among other shacks of poor families Romanian and honest. He came back from school a child that I know well and saw her jump to the air shed. He lost everything including school textbooks and shoes to play football in our team "ercolini". You should see the face of that child: it could be your son! It could be your house! His mother works well and so the father: honest fellow Europeans, but with 500 euros per month can afford only a shack. There are so honest Romanians and Romanians murderers. As in Italy and elsewhere in the world. It is difficult to reconcile legality and solidarity, but our experience has shown that only through dialogue and the commitment to safeguard the rule of law and to promote solidarity is the key to creating a future of peace. These children will be adults of Italy. What they say? What They learn from us? Let's sow the love to reap the peace.

(Source: Epolis Milano)

Stop violence against women

Italian ministers Barbara Pollastrini, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio and Paolo Ferrero will join tomorrow to a march in Rome to stop violence against women. Today, they came in press room with a white ribbon (symbol of fight of violence against women). Sunday, november 25th will be the International Day for the elimination of violence against women.

(Source: repubblica.it)

Cover yourself!

Rome, november, 17th - He shot with an air rifle from a window and hit a 10yo boy who was walking on the street. The child was just slightly injured because of the heavy jacket he was wearing. It happened this morning in Rome. Arrived on place, policemen locate where the bullets was coming from. In the house, they found an air rifle, due boxes of bullets, a stick with a blade inside, and a knife. The man, a 42yo office-worker with clean record, didn't put up resistance and he was bring to the police station.

(Source: Adnkronos)