Rome: 38-year-old Polish woman locked in cellar by her boss-partner, arrested for mistreatment in the family

She had been living locked up for years in a cellar used as a bedroom, segregated by her partner, a 45-year-old Neapolitan, who forced her to a life of abuse and harassment. The woman regained her “freedom” thanks to a citizen’s report to the Police, after she had seen her partner attack her in the street.

It happened a few afternoons ago, when her “tormentor”, determined to give her some fresh air, took her for a walk through the streets of the neighborhood. Something, however, disturbed her good intentions, because suddenly – for a misplaced word – the man began to attack her first verbally and then physically. A local resident witnessed the scene and immediately intervened to help the victim, trying to stop the man while he was dragging her by her hair to take her back to the "cave". When the 45-year-old then began to threaten her too, inviting her not to interfere, the woman did not hesitate for a moment and called 112 (NUE). When the police officers from the Tor Carbone Police Station arrived, he gave them every useful description of the couple and the direction of the escape of the man, who had dragged his partner with him, causing them to disappear. Shortly after, the officers had tracked down the house where the man lived with his mother.

However, despite the latter's attempts to minimize the incident and to gain the consent of her partner-victim, the woman entrusted her desperation to a gesture. In her four raised fingers - commonly known as "Signal for help" - the police officers "heard" her desperate cry for help and approached her to reassure her and help her break down her wall of fear and suffering. Only then did the woman find the courage to speak and show them the basement where she had been forced to live her days for years. A double mattress, a chest of drawers, some bags with clothes and a bucket that the woman was forced to use for her physiological needs.

While the woman has stripped herself of her fears and then been entrusted to an anti-violence center, her tormentor has been arrested for the crime of mistreatment in the family. The Rome Public Prosecutor's Office has requested and obtained from the Judge for Preliminary Investigations the validation of the actions of the State Police and the application of precautionary custody in prison.