Abuse and violence against psychiatric patients, 15 arrests in Foggia – Puglia

Fifteen people, including health workers, nurses and auxiliaries were arrested and as many were followed by precautionary measures (staying obligation and prohibition of approaching the victims) with charges of mistreatment e sexual abuse against 25 psychiatric patients hospitalized in the Don Uva health and social facility in Foggia.

The investigation, coordinated by the Foggia prosecutor’s office, was conducted by the Carabinieri Investigative Unit and the Nas. The allegations are of aggravated ill-treatment, kidnapping, sexual assault, personal aiding and abetting of at least 25 hospitalized patients. These are patients who are in conditions of incapacity and/or physical or mental inferiority admitted to the long-term female psychiatry ward and are all between 40 and 60 years old. The investigation was launched last summer. In addition to the homes of the 30 suspects, the offices and premises of the health facility under investigation were also searched. The top management of the structure are not under investigation.

The ill-treatment was daily: the 25 patients who were victims of violence were grabbed by the hair and body, hit in the face with slaps and punches and dragged through the corridors. The conduct of the 30 people affected by the precautionary measures did not end there: there are also the sexual abuses committed by an operator on a woman and those of the OSS who induced a patient to rape a woman.

It is a “chilling” scenario – as the investigating judge Marialuisa Bencivenga describes it in the 314 pages of the precautionary measure. Of the 30 suspects, seven ended up in prison, eight under house arrest and 15 were affected by a ban on staying at the facility and approaching offended persons. The suspects are accused in various ways of two episodes of sexual violence, 19 episodes of ill-treatment, 13 kidnappings and one of personal aiding and abetting. The latter crime refers to the attempt by some suspects to look for bugs and cameras installed in the clinic by the carabinieri to ascertain the violence. Almost all the crimes are also aggravated by having been committed against seriously disabled subjects, by having acted cruelly and by taking advantage of the disabled state of defense of the victims.

“We have done the Suspension of all the people involved and we will proceed with the layoffs where there are extremes”. This was stated in a statement by the CEO of ‘Universo Salute’, Luca Vigilante, referring to the investigations that led to the notification of 30 precautionary measures against employees of the company that operates in the former orthophrenic institute of Foggia.

“We are waiting – he adds – for the details of the work carried out by the judiciary in collaboration with our administration which, since day one, has worked for the protection of patients, especially those who are more mentally fragile, asking all trade union organizations and to all workers the authorization to install cameras also in the rooms. This in light of the delicacy of the type of work. The authorization was granted to us only in some areas, moreover known to all the workers”. “In the meantime – he concludes – the administration had already made some dismissals for acts that did not conform to the dignity and rules of the community. So we will continue to be cooperative and collaborative”