I just landed at the airport fiumicinowalked out of the terminal and was literally surrounded by a cloud of taxi drivers predatory offering rides at reduced prices compared to the exorbitant rates of those who have the license. The woman, not having the tools to understand the difference, trusted and got into the car of one of the squatters, who -among other things- she qualified as an Uber driver, although she was not. She asked to be accompanied to the “Th Carpegna Palace” hotel in the Aurelia area. But little did she know that a nightmare journey would begin the moment the 59-year-old started the engine. The foreign tourist, in effect, denounced having suffered sexual abuse and yesterday – after a trial held with the abbreviated procedure – the investigating judge of the Court of First Instance Rome, Tiziana Coccoluto, sentenced the man to two years and eight months in prison. Prosecutor Francesco Minisci had asked for four.
They do not want to pay the ticket, they hit a taxi driver: two arrests
THE AFTERNOON OF THE EVENTS
The story goes back to July 17, during a hot summer afternoon. Tired after a long flight and disconcerted by the confusion that always arises when leaving the airport, due to the “abusive newspaper boys”, the French-speaking tourist thinks she is boarding an Uber service car. She communicates the destination, that is, the name of the hotel where she will stay. Giuseppe DR, the defendant, informs him that the bill would have been for 50 euros. She sits next to the driver. At a certain point during the journey, the man, “with violence that consisted of forcibly holding her hand” in her private parts, “forced her to perform sexual acts” and “groped her breasts and hips repeatedly.” All this, “with the aggravating factor of having taken advantage of circumstances of time, place and person – reads the indictment – of being a foreign tourist who has just landed in Italy and has boarded an illegal taxi alone”. The victim manages to take a photo of the man’s hands on her and sends it to a friend of hers, to whom he writes: “Horrible.” Once she reaches her destination, she even pays for the trip during which she was allegedly abused. But she, trying to maintain her lucidity, before getting out of the car, she asks the driver for his cell phone, with the excuse that she would call him back if she needed another ride back to the airport. The next day she goes to the police and files a complaint, then she goes to another destination, since she was just passing through Rome. As proof of what she denounces, she attaches the photo, the WhatsApp chat and the taxi driver’s contact telephone number. Thanks to this element, to the images extrapolated from the video surveillance circuit of the “Th Carpegna Palace” hotel and to the semen found in the tourist’s bag, the agents managed to locate the 59-year-old man, who -a week after the events- was arrested right across from Fiumicino airport. He is now under house arrest, with an electronic bracelet.
THE DEFENSE
Initially, in his guarantee interrogation, the defendant had admitted that he had had sexual relations with the victim, but that they had been consented to; while yesterday, in the courtroom, he denied everything: «I am not a criminal. I have been doing this abusive public service, it has been bringing people for 30 years, since 1993. I have never even allowed myself to touch a woman with a finger ». Then, regarding the tourist who denounced him, he added: “She It was noticeable that she was a woman of easy virtue, even half-dressed. From what she said on the phone, I think she was having an extramarital affair. And in any case, it was not me who asked her for the 50 euros at the end of the trip, she gave it to me of her own free will.
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