Castellammare, a social media lure, followed by a basement nightmare: 26-year-old arrested for sexual assault.

Castellammare di Stabia – A web-based encounter turned, according to the prosecution, into a nightmare that lasted several hours. This is the reconstruction at the heart of the investigation that led this morning, September 14, to the arrest of a 26-year-old resident of Castellammare di Stabia.

The Carabinieri of the Sant'Antonio Abate Station executed the pre-trial detention order, following a ruling issued by the Preliminary Investigations Judge of the Torre Annunziata Court at the request of the Public Prosecutor's Office. The young man faces serious charges of sexual assault, personal injury, and kidnapping, crimes charged with the aggravating circumstances set forth in the order.

At the center of the case is a young woman barely over 18, who apparently met the suspect through a popular social network. Their acquaintance apparently began online and then transformed into a real-life encounter, which, according to investigators' reconstruction, had a dramatic outcome.

The dark and isolated cellar

According to the investigative reconstruction, on the night between August 2 and 3, 2026, the young woman was lured by the 26-year-old to a cellar located inside an apartment building on Corso Alcide De Gasperi, in Castellammare di Stabia.
A place described by investigators as dark and isolated. And it is precisely within that space that, according to the prosecution's hypothesis, the sequence of violence began.

The young man allegedly blocked the only access door from the inside, using a heavy radiator, and stole the girl's cell phone, thus preventing her from calling for help or communicating with the outside world.
From that moment on, according to what the victim reported and what investigators reconstructed, the girl was deprived of her liberty for several hours.

Threats, beatings and violence

The young woman's complaint allowed investigators to reconstruct a night characterized, according to the prosecution, by a series of physical and sexual assaults.

The girl reportedly said she was repeatedly beaten and threatened with death. The 26-year-old also allegedly used wooden beams from the premises to restrain her.
A particularly serious story, on which the Public Prosecutor's Office and the Carabinieri immediately began investigations, acquiring medical documentation and gathering useful elements to verify what the injured party had declared.

The investigation, therefore, would not have stopped at the young woman's statements, but would have sought external corroboration of her reconstruction.

The complaint and the first investigations

The victim filed a complaint in the days following the events. From that moment, an investigation began, coordinated by the Torre Annunziata Public Prosecutor's Office and conducted by the Carabinieri.
Of particular importance in the investigation were the hospital reports, which documented the physical consequences suffered by the girl.

These elements would be added to the photographic surveys carried out by the judicial police and the testimonies of the people who had met or listened to the young woman in the immediate aftermath of the events.
The very fact that the girl had confided in some people immediately after the alleged rape would have allowed investigators to verify some parts of her story, also reconstructing the timeline of events.

The investigating judge: risk of repetition

Based on the evidence gathered during the investigation, the preliminary investigations judge of the Torre Annunziata Court found that the serious evidence of guilt required for the application of the precautionary measure existed.
The order emphasizes the extreme gravity of the alleged conduct and highlights, according to the Prosecutor's Office, the particular social danger of the suspect, as well as the concrete risk of repeating similar crimes.

Hence the decision to apply pre-trial detention in prison.

This morning's arrest is the culmination of just over a month of investigations, which began with the young woman's complaint and continued through cross-referencing her statements with documentary, medical, and witness evidence gathered by investigators.