It must have been a Saturday night like many others. Hours spent in the company of friends, then ‘goodbye to everyone and off we go home’. But for a young 23-year-old Italian girl, the epilogue was different. In a semi-deserted street in Trieste, while she was returning home, she was attacked by two men with their faces covered, who abused her and then robbed her.
It was only her strong opposition that stopped the sexual violence in progress and made the two escape, who robbed her of her wallet as they walked away. The police investigations are intense and in recent hours they have already interviewed the young woman and acquired video surveillance images of the area with the aim of collecting as many elements as possible to identify and track down the attackers.
It is the umpteenth sexual assault – among those reported – on a woman in Italy, which follows only 24 hours later the one that took place outside a nightclub in Milan. The victim in that case was a 20-year-old American girl. The abuser was a 19-year-old Italian student who he met in her club and who took advantage of the fact that the young woman had been drinking with her to act on her.
In Trieste this morning it was around 4am when the young woman was blocked in the street. In those minutes she was walking along a side street of Viale D’Annunzio, an area not too far from the city center, but far enough from what remains of the nightlife at that time.
Once freed from her attackers, the 23-year-old managed to call for help and went to the emergency room, where, following what was reported to the health workers, the agents of the Trieste Police Headquarters intervened. The young woman has already given a first testimony – her version of the facts – to the judicial police. The alleged crimes are sexual assault and robbery. At the moment it cannot be ruled out that the 23-year-old was attacked mainly with the intent of sexual violence and only at a later time was she robbed.
Some information on the identity of the attackers was reported: two tall men, who addressed the victim in Italian. They would not have been armed. The investigations are ongoing and proceeding quickly to give a name and a face to the rapists.
In a Trieste that has always been considered safe, last night’s episode comes almost like a bolt from the blue. Especially for the modalities: a sexual assault suffered at the hands of two hooded people. In recent months, however, some episodes of sexual assaults on the street had been reported, even by minors.
Recently, for example, the police had collected complaints from two women, sexually harassed respectively on board a bus and in the entrance hall of a building, and had arrested a 22-year-old Afghan citizen. According to data released by the Police Headquarters on the occasion of the day for the elimination of violence against women, in 2023, up to the month of November, 44 sexual assaults had been reported in the province of Trieste, almost all of which occurred in the context of ongoing or finish.
For further information ANSA Agency Twenty-year-old raped in Milan, attacker arrested – News – Ansa.it American student, abuse near a nightclub (ANSA)
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