Varcaturo: Stalking? No, it was an argument that escalated into assault; the messages prove the woman's threats.

Pozzuoli – A completely overturned circumstantial evidence and a prosecution case debunked by a meticulous analysis of phone messages. The Preliminary Investigations Judge at the Naples North Court, Dr. Vincenzo Saladino, has ordered the immediate release of YVDG, a 32-year-old from Pozzuoli arrested in flagrante delicto on the serious charges of stalking and assaulting his ex-partner.

The investigating judge, accepting most of the defense arguments presented by the defendant's lawyers, Marco Bernardo (of the Naples Bar) and Diego Di Bonito (of the Naples North Bar), deemed the crime of stalking to be completely groundless, reconsidering the incident as an isolated episode of a family dispute that degenerated into physical injury.

The plaintiff's version and the Carabinieri raid

The events date back to September 7th. The victim, Mrs. RM, had contacted the Carabinieri (Italian police) to report alleged repeated stalking by her former partner, driven—in her opinion—by obsessive jealousy that had erupted following the discovery of her new romantic relationship.

The woman had reported constant phone threats, stalking, and, finally, a physical attack in the hallway of their home in the presence of the couple's youngest son. This story prompted the Prosecutor's Office to request and secure the man's arrest.

The turning point in smartphone analytics

However, the reconstruction provided by the alleged victim did not stand up to critical examination of the documents and, above all, the photographic production of the WhatsApp chats extracted from the suspect's phone and presented in court by the defense.

A full and chronological reading of the messages revealed a very different reality than the partial excerpts initially attached to the arrest report. The conversation was not a threatening monologue from the man, but rather a continuous, two-way exchange.

Surprisingly, it emerged that the woman herself, just minutes before the man went to her house, had sent him messages with an unmistakably threatening and intimidating tone: "You come too, but don't bring D... or I'll beat you to death" and "I'll stand you up in front of your son."

The crux of the message about the "teeth" and the dynamics of the facts

In the provisional indictment, the prosecutor had also included as key evidence of stalking a message sent by the suspect at 17:22 PM: "Get 4 ready for your teeth." According to the prosecution's narrative, the phrase represented a further threat of violence.

Preliminary Investigating Judge Saladino, however, accepted the reconstruction of lawyers Bernardo and Di Bonito: the message did not contain any future threats, but was a direct consequence of the physical assault suffered by the suspect himself. During the argument, the woman had struck him in the face, causing a tooth injury (which the suspect himself demonstrated during questioning).

The message was therefore a request for compensation for the dental expenses that the man would have had to pay and not a persecutory conduct.

Furthermore, the judge highlighted how, in the hours immediately following the incident, the two resumed chatting in a completely ordinary and civil tone regarding the care of their son, a factor completely incompatible with the state of anxiety, fear, or terror typical of stalking victims.

No prison: only the prohibition to approach remains

Since the seriousness of the charges for stalking has been removed, the 32-year-old remains charged with only the crime of personal injury. The woman's rib fracture (with a 30-day prognosis) was deemed to be the result of the man violently pushing the apartment building's front door to enter, causing her to fall backward down the stairs.

Considering the disproportionate nature of the pre-trial detention, given the mere possibility of assault and the suspect's lack of prior criminal record, the investigating judge ordered his immediate release from the Poggioreale prison, imposing the least severe measure of prohibiting him from approaching the injured party and placing him under an electronic bracelet.