Abuse of female doctors and nurses, chief arrested: "32 episodes in 45 days"

The police arrested a head physician of the Civil Hospital of Piacenza, under house arrest on a precautionary custody order: he is accused of aggravated sexual violence against doctors and nurses and stalking. Searches were also carried out in his office inside the hospital and in his home. The images recorded during 45 days of monitoring allowed the reconstruction of 32 episodes. "In fact, the Head physician performed sexual acts with almost all the women who walked through the door of his office alone", writes the Police.

The man is accused not only of sexual assault but also of stalking, a crime alleged in two cases "due to the continuity with which the victims were forced to undergo sexual acts, with the fear of repercussions if they chose to avoid the abuse."

The doctor, the police headquarters continues, acted as if the employees were at his disposal even sexually, "and for this reason he had no qualms about performing sexual acts, even during normal work activities and conversations". The investigation was started thanks to the complaint of a doctor, working in the department, who had suffered sexual assault for the first time inside the doctor's office, reporting the fact to the Health Directorate of the ASL and to the Police Headquarters. The victim had been attacked after going to the boss's office to discuss holidays: she had been locked in the room and forced to endure the abuse, interrupted only by the casual arrival of a colleague who knocked.

"The Piacenza hospital environment has proven to be seriously omertà and self-referential, as the abusive behavior of the head physician had long been known to a large part of the staff, so much so that he boasted in conversations with male colleagues about what he did to the detriment of the victims, on some occasions even receiving suggestions on sexual acts to perform in the future", the investigators write. "It was found - the police report - that for female health personnel, entering the head physician's office for work-related matters meant having to undergo sexual acts: a circumstance, this, if compared to a work environment made up of people in theory of a high cultural level, cannot but arouse amazement and even incredulity" .

(Online Union)