Ancona – Another conviction for Franco Panariello, the 57-year-old worker originally from Torre del Greco, who moved years ago to Cerreto d'Esi, in the Fabriano area, where on October 14, 2023, he killed his wife, Concetta Marruocco, a 53-year-old nurse, stabbing her 43 times in their home.
This time, the Ancona Court of Appeal found him guilty of domestic abuse and injury to his wife and minor daughter, sentencing him to five years in prison.
Panariello is already serving a life sentence for femicide, but the sentence handed down yesterday definitively confirms a cycle of violence and abuse that lasted over twenty years, culminating on that bloody autumn morning that shook the entire Marche community.
A life of violence, before the femicide
The mistreatment proceedings – initiated before the murder – were already underway when Concetta Marruocco was killed.
The woman, exasperated by the constant physical and psychological abuse, had reported her husband and her daughter, telling investigators of years of beatings, humiliation, and threats.
Following the complaint, the judge ordered Panariello to be restrained from approaching the house and to wear an electronic bracelet, which, however, failed to signal anything when the man reached the house and fatally shot her.
The tragedy occurred only a month after the start of the abuse trial, almost like a foretold epilogue.
Concetta's testimony in court a month before she was killed
On September 13, 2023, just one month before the femicide, Concetta Marruocco he had testified in court in Ancona, before the panel presided over by Judge Francesca Grassi.
At that hearing, the woman had recounted, in a firm but strained voice, decades of domestic abuse, also revealing that she had been sexually assaulted by her husband, accusations later not formally contested in the indictment.
Her daughter, assisted by lawyer Tecla Chiucchi, also a victim of the same domestic violence, joined the trial as a civil party.
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During the proceedings, Panariello had given spontaneous statements in court, claiming that he had been "painted as a monster" and denying that he had ever raised his hands on his wife or children.
“I have always loved Concetta,” she had said before the judges, before her story turned into one of the most brutal cases of femicide in the Marche region in the last year.
The defense, represented by lawyer Ruggero Benvenuto, had appealed the initial conviction for mistreatment, arguing that certain investigative evidence had not been "adequately assessed."
The Court of Appeal, however, largely upheld the prosecution's case, recognizing the systematic nature of the violence and the defendant's responsibility.
Life imprisonment and the appeal still to be scheduled
For the murder of his wife, Panariello was sentenced to life imprisonment in the first instance on December 17, 2024 by the Court of Ancona.
According to the Prosecutor's Office's reconstruction, on the morning of the crime, the man allegedly reached the house in violation of the restraining order and, after an argument, struck Concetta dozens of times, leaving her no escape.
The defense has also appealed the life sentence, but a trial date has not yet been set.
Concetta Marruocco's case has become a symbol of the failure of institutional prevention: the woman had reported the incident, received protection, and an electronic bracelet had been placed on her attacker. Yet, nothing prevented the man from returning home to kill her.
The mistreatment trial, now concluded with a second conviction, serves only to reconstruct the years of fear and pain that preceded the tragedy. But femicide remains an open wound.
Comments (1)
It's truly sad that these things can still happen today, despite reports and protection. Justice seems inadequate to protect women from such serious violence. More attention needs to be paid to these cases.