Serradifalco, mistreatment, sexual violence and abandonment in the home for the elderly, 3 arrested

Serradifalco (Caltanissetta), NAS of Ragusa, together with the Carabinieri of the Provincial Command of Caltanissetta, within the “Bad Caregiver” Operation, implemented an order, issued by the GIP of the Court of Caltanissetta at the request of the local Prosecutor's Office, of five precautionary measures , of which one in prison for an operator, two under house arrest against the manager of the facilities and an operator and two bans from the profession for one year for two other employees; furthermore, the seizure was carried out, again ordered by the AG, of the social welfare structure for the mentally disabled in Serradifalco (CL) under investigation (formally divided into two communities, but in fact merged) and of the company shares of the managing cooperative. At the same time, given the degradation and state of abandonment of the elderly, the patients were relocated, in agreement with the ASP of Caltanissetta, to other more suitable complexes. The recipients of the AG's provision they are investigated, for various reasons, for complicity in the ongoing crime of aggravated sexual violence (for the subject affected by prison custody measures), mistreatment, abandonment of incapable persons and abusive practice of the profession of nurse. The investigations, coordinated by the Nissena Public Prosecutor's Office and conducted by the NAS of Ragusa with observation and shadowing services, inspections and also through technical telephone interception, environmental audio/video activities, have made it possible to reveal the wicked conduct of the suspects in the two structures " lager" in which nine people suffering from mental disabilities of varying severity were housed. The investigative activity arose from a check, carried out as part of services arranged nationally by the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Health of Rome, in agreement with the Ministry of Health, aimed at monitoring the correct management of social structures - dedicated to hosting the weakest sections of society, during which serious anomalies were highlighted in the management of the two communities, in relation to the structural, hygienic, health, functional and organizational conditions which led to the inference of the inappropriate health care of their guests. Subsequently, investigations made it possible to discover numerous cases of physical mistreatment towards disabled people through violent beatings (often using chairs or sticks as blunt objects), slaps and punches. The patients were harassed with insults, abandoned, malnourished and fed only with rice or stale bread, soaked in water or milk and recovered from the waste of local bakeries. Emblematic is an episode where one of the guests, blind, is brutally beaten by the operator, because he was guilty of having urinated outside the toilet. Horrifying are the images of the cameras which film the operator who leads the disabled person by the hand, who is also blind, makes him sit down and then attacks his right hand by applying a lever on the elderly man's fingers, making him kneel. In this context, the cameras also unfortunately revealed several cases of sexual violence, by only one of the suspects, against an elderly guest who was not capable of self-determination.