Ex-boyfriend sentenced to life in prison in Italian femicide case

Filippo Turetta, a 22-year-old man who admitted to killing his ex-girlfriend, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

The judge excluded aggravating circumstances of cruelty and stalking in the verdict, but still handed down Italy’s toughest sentence.

The verdict comes a little over a year after Giulia Cecchettin’s body was found in a ditch in November in 2023, her body had more than 70 stab wounds and was wrapped in plastic bags. A week earlier, she had gone missing after going to the mall with Turetta.

Her father, Gino Cecchettin, said he is “neither more relieved nor sadder than yesterday.” He said that while justice had been served, the sentence does not offer consolation for the loss of his daughter and emphasized that more needs to be done to combat gender violence.

“I think we should do more as human beings, because we should not be discussing sentences right now. I don’t think you combat gender violence with sentences. You combat with prevention,” he said.

Femicide in Italy

Cecchettin’s disappearance gripped Italy while authorities searched for her last year. Shortly after her disappearance, a video emerged where Turetta could be seen hitting Cecchettin. The 22-year-old male became a main suspect, a week later he was arrested in Germany.

The case sparked widespread outrage in Italy, and fuelled demands for action to stop violence against women. Cecchettin’s father, as well as her sister Elena, became public figures in the fight against gender violence.

Roughly 10,000 people attended Giulia’s funeral in December of last year. Her father urged mourners to be “agents of change” in a patriarchal culture that he said often “undervalues the lives of women.”

In the first 10 months of this year, 96 women in Italy were killed, 51 of them by current or former romantic partners, according to Interior Ministry statistics.