Six persons were arrested in Rome on Wednesday accused of sexually
abusing 15 children from the age of three to the age of six at the
nursery school “Olga Rovere” of Rignano Flaminio, in the vicinities of
Rome.
They are expected to be subjected to intense interrogations on Friday.
The accused persons were arrested and passed their first night in
isolation in a jail in Rebibbia, close to Rome.
All six were arrested and accused of a number of offences which included
the abduction of minors, sexual violence within a group, sexual violence
on minors under the age of 10 and obscene actions in public places.
Two teachers, both grandmothers, were reported to have been in
service at the school for decades and one was close to retirement.
Italian Police also arrested a female caretaker at the school, a
young Sri Lankan male and the husband of one of the teachers, who
formerly worked as a cameraman at Italy's state broadcaster RAI.
Police said the children were taken to an apartment near the school
owned by one of the teachers where they were alledgedly made to
perform sexual acts with the Sri Lankan suspect, while the cameraman
filmed the ordeal.
Children who protested or resisted were given sleeping pills,
tranquilisers or other types of drugs.
“They told us that they were only playing, they made punctures on
our cheeks,” said one of the children involved.
Some victims spoke of esoteric and satanic rituals, where adults
forced them to drink human blood, exited from wounds that the same
persons caused.
The pupils described the intimate parts of the body of the arrested
persons and mentioned also piercing and tattoos, which a child at
such a tender age wouldn’t know, if he or she has not seen them
before.
The little victims described the dreadful scenes saying: “In the
villa where they took us, a man cut his arm and coerced us to drink
his own blood which he poured in a glass, with other substances.
Then they made us do a series of strange games, sort of performances
with masked adults and massages to female teachers with oil”.
The parents were reportedly alarmed by signs of bruising and red
swelling around their children's genital areas, as well as by the
dazed and confused state in which some of them returned home from
school.
The city, Rignano Flaminio, is dismayed. People cannot believe that
teachers and other esteemed persons could have done such repulsive
crimes.
“It’s a nightmare” Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said, remarking
the umpteenth paedophilia case in Rignano Flaminio.
“These are very serious episodes” he added, emphasising that
actually these things are not so much diffused in Italian schools.
Amato admitted that the challenge against paedophilia is “a
difficult fight” and revealed that the Interior Ministry “was
informed” of the preliminary enquires carried out. “We were
anxiously following the case at the Ministry” he added, “because we
know what it means for Italian families who have children at
school”.
