Alessia Pifferi was capable of understanding and willing: the result of the psychiatric expertise. He risks life in prison

Alessia Pifferi, the mother of little Diana who died of starvation and dehydration at the age of 18 months after the 37-year-old man left her alone at home for several days, was capable of understanding and wanting. This is the result of the psychiatric expertise requested 4 months ago by the judges of the Milan Assize Court and filed on Monday February 26 as part of the trial for aggravated intentional homicide. The crime thus contested by the prosecution, and without the mitigating circumstance excluded by the expertise which would have allowed a reduction of sentence, can lead to life imprisonment. “At the material time, she protected her desires as a woman in relation to her duties of maternal care towards little Diana and also adopted intelligent conduct taking into account the different reasons for her choices given to different people,” writes consultant Elvezio Pirfo, expert already involved in the Cogne affair, confirming the prosecutor's theses “the woman does not present major psychiatric disorders, nor serious personality disorders”. In the 130-page expert report, we further read: “Neither an intellectual deficiency nor a major psychiatric disorder nor a serious personality disorder can be demonstrated, it is possible to affirm that Alessia Pifferi at the time of the facts for which she the accused was capable of understanding and willing […]. Taking into account the maintained capacity for understanding and will, it is not possible to formulate a prognosis of social danger linked to mental illness. […] In the absence of psychiatric pathologies but above all in the presence of intact cognitive functioning and a good capacity to understand the legal matter which concerns him, both in terms of negative value of the acts carried out and of evolution of the procedural matter, the woman is able to remain in court.

The investigation into the psychologists indicted

The court filing also refers to psychological tests performed on Pifferi in prison, now the focus of another investigation. According to the prosecution, two psychologists from San Vittore prison and Pifferi's lawyer, currently under investigation for forgery and complicity, helped the woman obtain a psychiatric report by falsifying a psychodiagonal test, now judged by the expert to be being “unreliable”, saying the 38-year-old suffered from cognitive impairment. “The study already carried out on Pifferi's cognitive abilities,” reads the expert's report, “including the follow-up and interviews that preceded the administration of the Wais test, is not entirely compliant reference protocols and good practices in the administration of psychodiagnostics. tests and therefore the result of the aforementioned evaluation cannot be considered reliable and compatible with the mental and personality characteristics of the accused as evident from the other documents of the procedure and the observation of the expert” .

Read also: