Filippo Turetta has been sentenced to life in jail for the murder of Giulia Cecchettin, a university student whose brutal killing cast a grim spotlight on femicide in Italy.
Cecchettin, 22, was stabbed more than 70 times before her body was wrapped in black plastic bags and dumped in a ditch close to a lake north of Venice in November last year. Her murder triggered protests across the country.
Turetta, Cecchettin’s ex-boyfriend, was arrested in Germany on 19 November 2023, the day after her body was found. He told Venice’s assize court in October that he had planned to kidnap and kill Cecchettin after she refused to get back together with him.
Judges also ordered Turetta to pay a total of €760,000 in compensation to the Cecchettin family.
The prosecutor Andrea Petroni had called for a life sentence, saying that Turetta had acted with “particular brutality”.
Turetta’s lawyer, Giovanni Caruso, had argued that the life sentence was excessive, saying his client was “not Pablo Escobar”, the notorious Colombian drug baron.
Cecchettin, a biomedical engineering student, disappeared on 11 November 2023 after going to a shopping mall in Marghera, accompanied by Turetta, to buy a dress for her upcoming graduation.
During the week-long police search, a roadside surveillance image emerged of Turetta hitting Cecchettin, who could be seen trying to escape before being forced back into the car.
Commenting on the verdict, her father, Gino, told reporters that “justice has been done according to the laws in force”. He added, however, that “as a society, we have all lost”.
He said last week that his daughter’s memory had been further “humiliated” by the Turetta comparison with Escobar. Caruso on Tuesday shook hands with her father, reportedly telling him: “I understand. It’s my job, it’s not easy.”
Andrea Camerotto, Cecchettin’s uncle, told reporters: “I am not for forgiveness; I will never forgive [the person] who killed my niece and I will never forgive those who harm women.”
Cecchettin’s relationship with Turetta lasted about a year before she ended it in August 2023. Her sister, Elena, told the Guardian last week that the “control and manipulation” had started early on, with a fit of jealousy after Giulia said she was going to meet a male friend she had known from high school. He had never previously been physically violent, she added, but as with many femicide cases, Turetta could not accept that the relationship had ended.
A foundation was set up last month in Cecchettin’s memory.
Since Cecchettin’s death, 106 women in Italy have been killed by a man. In the vast majority of cases the suspect was either a current or former partner.
