“They were reduced to the same condition as the children in the Auschwitz extermination camp.” The very strong description comes from the testimony of Flying Squad inspector Fabio Reali at the trial for mistreatment of the children's mother. The arrest of Jessika H., 26, dates back to May 2023, but the violence is said to have lasted for at least two years. The two children, aged five and seven, were found on the streets of Aprilia (Latina) after being abandoned by their mother on a farm: the woman had also tried to escape to France. The little ones were treated at the Bambino Gesù hospital in Rome and are now in the community. The signs of violence will accompany them for the rest of their lives: one will remain blind while another will have a permanent humerus problem.
Violence: “You could see their bones because they were so thin”
“You could see their bones because of their thinness, their bodies were deformed, their bellies were disproportionately swollen, they had rat bites everywhere and traces of unlit cigarettes,” he explained to Mail Inspector Réali. The mother's partner has fled and is now wanted, while the children's father lives in France with the twins he had with the woman. The biological father would have been unaware of the torture anyway, he knew nothing of what had happened in that Aprilia apartment. The children bore marks of torture, cigarette burns and boiling water. The violence is said to have started when the mother moved to her partner's house in Aprilia: here, she stopped looking after her children, who were left without water or food. When the police found them on the streets of Aprilia, the children only expressed themselves through gestures because they did not know how to speak. The woman was arrested before fleeing to France with her two other children.