Caivano – The Naples Court of Appeals is scheduled to deliver its verdict on October 2nd in the trial of the two adults involved in the Caivano rapes, a case that shocked public opinion in the summer of 2023 and which involved two young cousins, aged just 10 and 12, victims of a gang that exploited their vulnerability.
The first convictions and the trial of minors
The legal proceedings were divided into two parts: on one side, the minors, and on the other, the two boys who were already adults at the time of the events.
The young people under 18, tried under a fast-track procedure by the Juvenile Court, have already received their first convictions, which have laid bare the responsibility of a group capable of transforming Caivano's Parco Verde, already a symbol of degradation and crime, into a scene of unjustified horror.
The adult defendants
Now facing charges before the lower court are Pasquale Mosca, 21, and Giuseppe Varriale, 20, both sentenced in the first instance to 13 years and 4 months and 12 years and 5 months respectively for aggravated sexual assault.
The appeal process has focused primarily on Mosca's position in recent hearings. A psychiatric evaluation, ordered by the judge, confirmed the young man's full capacity to understand and decide: "aware of the social disvalue of the acts committed," as the doctor who signed the report reiterated.
This is confirmed by the videos found on the defendant's cell phone, considered proof of the clear willfulness with which he acted.
The requests of the defense and the prosecution
Attorney Dario Carmine Procentese, representing Varriale, filed a request for a plea bargain of 11 years and 2 months, which was later joined by a request from his colleague Giovanni Cantelli, Mosca's lawyer.
But while the Attorney General's Office gave its approval for Varriale, in Mosca's case the deputy prosecutor flatly refused, requesting that the sentence handed down in the first instance be confirmed.
Waiting for the decision
The verdict will arrive on October 2nd. A date that closes another chapter in a story that has brought to light, along with the individual plight of the young victims , a snapshot of a fragile social context, marked by degradation and abandonment.
A trial that, despite the technicalities of the courtroom, remains first and foremost the story of brutal violence perpetrated against two little girls, and the slow search for justice that followed.
