(ANSA) – PALERMO, FEB 22 – Italian police on Monday arrested
four people on suspicion of physically abusing residents of a
care home in Palermo.
Finance guards said they had recorded evidence of the abuse over
five months using listening devices.
Among the insults ad threats that accompanied the alleged
beatings were “I’ll beat you with a stick, I’ll beat you to
death”, “you’re useless, a prostitute…you must she your blood
and die here”, and “I don’t care if you die”, police said.
The guardia di finanza said eight elderly residents of the home
in the centre of the Sicilian capital had been beaten, insulted
and threatened by the three staff members and the director of
the home.
Siblings Carmelina, Mariano and Maria Grazia Ingrassia, and
manager Vincenza Alfano, were all placed under house arrest.
The probe started when one of the alleged victims, a woman,
phoned a medical lab and said “they’re treating me worse than a
dog, they’ve tied me to a chair”.
During the phone call the medical operator said he had clearly
heard the insults and threats directed at the resident.
The care home has been sequestered. (ANSA).
