Francesca Ghio’s testimony of childhood sexual abuse leads to investigation

First the report in the Genoa council chamber, then the opening of investigations by the public prosecutor’s office. The account of the sexual violence she suffered as a little girl, shared yesterday by Rossoverde councilor Francesca Ghio, has now turned from a political act into a legal act. Genoa, Francesca Ghio: ‘I was raped within the walls of my house at the age of 12’. The AVS councilor admits to having been attacked. Francesca Ghio Ghio’s report stated that she was abused at the age of twelve. “I was living in the heart of prosperous Genoa when I was physically and psychologically abused within the walls of my home,” she said. The meeting was initially quiet, but when councilors realized she was the victim, messages of closeness and solidarity began to flow. The case is brought against unknown persons and entrusted to Deputy Prosecutor Vittorio Ranieri Miniati, who coordinates the Weak Sections pool. The investigation will then be assigned to a magistrate of the group to assess whether the crime is not time-barred, as 19 years have passed since the events. The first step should be to hear the victim within three days, as required by the Red Code. The statute of limitations takes effect after twelve years, but if the violence continued over time, it could not have expired. That is why Councilor Ghio’s full report will be crucial. The investigation was opened ex officio, because this type of crime does not require a complaint from the victim, based on what was reported on sites and newspapers. ‘I was made to respond by the Cecchettin family’ Today, Ghio explained in an interview with ANSA: ‘I was prepared and chose to do it. I feel like my body has become food for everyone. A part of me died many years ago, the new voice I dared to use yesterday gives me great strength. And it is also nice to think that this desire to respond was given to me by Giulia and everything that the Cecchettin family has done’. The municipal councilor is one of the most combative members of the minority in the Genoa municipal council: in recent months, as a new mother, she managed to get a regulation approved allowing new parents, both men and women, to participate in council sessions. remotely. In the audience she explained why she was testifying and concluded with a quote from the song Bandiera by singer-songwriter and feminist activist Giulia Mei: ‘I am a voice, I am a flag, my body is Political, here I am call to represent people’. Ghio emphasized that she had been “privileged to be able to tell in an institutional room” what she suffered in order to “put her body, as taught by feminist and transfeminist movements, at the service of everyone, to give a voice to those who have not’. the power to do that’. It adds that resources are needed to combat gender-based violence “because society needs the resources to educate our children” and to “help those who do not have the resources to face what they have suffered.” .