Four people arrested over alleged rape of two British girls in Italy

Police in Italy have arrested four people after two British girls were allegedly raped and beaten by a gang of boys after a house party.

THE girls, whose ages have not been revealed, were reportedly kicked and punched during the attack in Marconia in the Italian region of Basilicata, and needed hospital treatment.

They had attended a private property at a house on the outskirts of the seaside village on Monday night, September 7, though it is not clear if the attack happened at the house or elsewhere.

After their ordeal, the girls returned to their accommodation and contacted the police.

Medics were called to the scene, where they were treated for their injuries and for shock before being transferred to a nearby hospital.

Police authorities in Matera said in a statement yesterday (Thursday): “On the night between 7-8 September, in Marconia di Pisticci, sexual violence was committed against two foreign minors who were at a party in a villa.

“The investigative unit of Matera police headquarters has begun investigations in coordination with the public prosecutor’s office.”

In response to the police statement, mayor of the town, Viviana Verri urged the community to “stand together”, in a post on Facebook.

She said: “A fact of this gravity deeply disturbs the serenity of a country foreign to these forms of hateful violence, even more serious because it is perpetrated against two minors.

“I express full confidence in the work of the Law Enforcements and the Prosecutor of the Republic and I invite everyone to maximum collaboration in these hours, crucial in order to bring to justice the guilty of such an atrocity.

“However, I feel obliged to make an appeal to the whole community: let’s stand together! This story should not turn into a witch hunt or a morbid search for personal and scabrous details, conveyed by the chatter of social media.

“This is when the spirit of our community needs to emerge strong, a healthy community that cannot and will never get used to such episodes and for this reason cannot afford to silence those who are able to help investigators put an end to this affair.”

Verri added: “Those who don’t know, don’t invent, don’t investigate, don’t hinder the work of the institutions responsible for this, but observe a respectful silence for the pain of the victims and their families, to whom all the solidarity of the Administration and the whole city goes.

“As an institution we ensure maximum collaboration with the law enforcement, to whom we ask to watch even more carefully over our city, to discourage episodes of violence of any kind and this remains a sad but isolated page in the history of Pistigce.”

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