The four social health workers of the nursing home for the elderly and community care for the non-self-sufficient located in Cerreto Sannita will be questioned on Monday. They were affected by the ban on approaching the facility adopted in an investigation by the prosecutor Stefania Bianco, the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza into the alleged aggravated mistreatment of which some elderly guests were victims.
GP, a 51-year-old from Cerreto Sannita, LAM, a 56-year-old from Guardia Sanframondi, AM, 48, from Sant'Agata dei Goti, and GS, a 30-year-old from Valle di Maddaloni, will appear before the investigating judge Pietro Vinetti, defended by the lawyers Massimo Viscusi, Emiliano Vaccarella, Antonio Barbieri and Cosimo Ciotta.
The prosecutor had proposed house arrest for the first and third, but the judge decided to apply the same measure to all of them, considering it suitable to avoid the risk of repetition of the crime. It remains to be seen what choice will be made by the four, who can answer questions or avail themselves of the right not to do so, perhaps by releasing spontaneous statements.
The facts for which they have been called into question, in various capacities, are said to have begun in January, the reconstruction that the investigators have made tells a picture of which some of the hospitalized patients would have paid the price, having been mocked, pushed, slapped and ignored with respect to their needs.
As anticipated yesterday, the investigative activity was triggered by an initial anonymous complaint and, later, by telephone reports from an intern who had subsequently also delivered some audio and video recordings.
The outcry sparked by the investigation was inevitable. The social cooperative EPA, which manages the shelter , intervened in the investigation, expressing its "confidence in the collaborators" involved and in the "investigating authorities" and underlining that "their concept of assisting and treating patients is sound and based on respect for the dignity and vulnerability of vulnerable people.
Therefore, the ongoing welfare project will continue its course with new and stronger motivations in line with the social vocation that has always distinguished our reality".
