An Italian footballer, Giovanni Padovani, aged 28, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for beating his former girlfriend, Alessandra Matteuzzi, aged 56 to death.
It was learnt that the footballer beat Alessandra with a hammer, baseball bat and a bench after she reported him for stalking outside her home in August 2022 in Bologna.
According to Metro UK, Alessandra was on the phone with her sister Stefania who heard her screams as she was beaten with a hammer, a baseball bat and eventually a bench Padovani had picked up.
The former Sancataldese centre-back, who is now a model, ambushed Alessandra after his colleagues advised him not to attend a training session.
Stefania told a local TV station: ‘She got out of her car and started screaming, “No Giovanni, no, I beg you, help.”
A neighbour was quoted: “She was very afraid of him because he had become persistent and she didn’t want to let him in the house.”
Padovani tried to tell the court he was not in a fit state of mind at the time of the attack.
He said: “If I was completely lucid and capable I deserve life in prison. But if you consider that there is something abnormal, anomalous, in the conduct, then no.
“I wasn’t well, because a person who is well doesn’t kill another human being. I’m in a nightmare, I’m sorry, this is a bigger burden than prison.’
Stefania burst into tears as she left the courtroom, saying: “Alessandra is no longer here, my sister is no longer here.”
Bologna Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Amato denied accusations of judicial negligence after many claimed the justice system failed to protect Alessandra.
He said the investigation into Alessandra’s stalking complaint was paused as witnesses were on holiday.
“We did what we could,’ he said, saying at the time it seemed to be ‘the typical conduct of bothersome stalking.”
