Homophobic Father Pays Hitman To Break Gay Son’s Fingers
A man in Italy was recently sentenced to two years in prison, after a court convicted the 75-year-old man for allegedly paying a hitman €2,500 to break the fingers of his 43-year-old gay son.
Italian news outlet La Repubblica reported that the feud between the father and son began when local newspapers published pictures of the son – a successful surgeon in Turin, in Northern Italy – along with a male actor.
In February, the father had hired two men to beat up his sons’ partner. The assault left the son’s partner with serious injures and he had to be hospitalised. On numerous occasions, the son had changed the locks on his doors, and the two allegedly did not feel safe to leave their house without being accompanied by friends.
“My son is a thug, break his fingers,” the father reportedly told the Romanian hitman in April. The hitman who followed the son and his partner over a period of two weeks realised that the father had lied to him. The hitman instead slashed the tyres of the son’s car, a local court heard.
In November, Italy’s lower house of Parliament had voted to pass a bill that would make
violence against LGBTQI people and people with disabilities, as well as misogyny, a hate crime. The country’s upper house is yet to pass the law that enforces these protections against minorities.
Chiara Appendino, the Mayor of Turin, was quick to condemn the horrifying and despicable actions of the father saying that he was not representative of the values of the city and called out the need for the hate crime legislation.
“We need a law as soon as possible that helps bring a profound cultural change,” Appendino said, in a letter he wrote to the court. “We need this cultural change in institutions, in
schools, families and citizens. This hatred must be defeated as soon as possible, without any
exception.”
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For 24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14
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