Naples, May 16, 2024 – The court of Napoli Nord has acquitted 73-year-old psychiatrist Luigi Carrizzone of charges of sexual abuse of a patient with mental problems. The acquittal was pronounced "because the fact does not exist".
Carrizzone, former head of the Department of Mental Health of the ASL of Caserta, had been accused of having taken advantage of the patient during a visit to his private office in Aversa. The episode emerged in 2018 from wiretaps carried out by the Prosecutor's Office of Naples North as part of an investigation into an alleged system of corruption within the Department of Mental Health.
The investigation led to the arrest of Carrizzone and eleven other people in February 2021. In total, approximately 60 people were investigated.
The wiretaps revealed some conversations in which Carrizzone allegedly pressured the woman not to reveal the abuse. This part of the accusation was separated from the main trial and followed an independent trial path, which ended with the full acquittal of Carrizzone by an all-female judging panel.
The judges accepted the argument of Carrizzone's lawyers, Giovanni Cantelli and Raffaele Costanzo, who had argued that their client had not committed criminal conduct and that there was no evidence against him.
Carrizzone and 58 other defendants will face a preliminary hearing on October 8th before the preliminary hearing judge of the Santa Maria Capua Vetere court. The hearing will have to decide on the referral to trial requested by the Prosecutor's Office in relation to the alleged corruption system within the Department of Mental Health of the ASL, which according to the prosecution was orchestrated by Carrizzone himself.
The defendants will have to answer for several crimes, including criminal conspiracy aimed at corruption, bid-rigging, forgery of public documents, fraud against a public body, embezzlement and illicit influence peddling. The latter crime is charged to one of the defendants, the President of the Regional Council of Campania Gennaro Oliviero.
Other defendants include entrepreneur and owner of the EmmeDue health facilities Michele Schiavone and former general director of the Caserta ASL Mario De Biasio.
Article published on May 16, 2024 - 14:39 pm
