Student commits suicide, the 19-year-old under investigation defends himself: "I didn't rape her"
The young man denies the accusations: with Julie, he says, there was a consensual sexual relationship. The girl hanged herself on Sunday
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No violence but a consensual sexual relationship that - according to his version - the 19-year-old from Brindisi accused of rape would have had with Julie, the 21-year-old French student found to have committed suicide on Sunday evening in her home in Lecce.
The young man is accused of incitement to suicide and sexual assault. Those abuses that the student, who has been in Italy for a few weeks for an Erasmus period, reported to the doctors at the emergency room in Lecce where she went on Thursday 19 October. The girl did not report the facts to the police, as the health workers had suggested she do. Then last Sunday she hanged herself.
The investigators want to ascertain whether, in addition to the hypothesis of sexual violence, there could be a causal link between the suicide and the alleged abuse. The latter are mentioned in the medical certificate, found in the 21-year-old's room on Sunday evening and seized together with the student's PC and cell phone. From the analysis of the girl's smartphone, the investigators identified a first trace to trace the boy from Puglia. The mobile phone was also seized from the 19-year-old, a university student from the province of Brindisi. He also attends a degree course at the Salento university.
According to what his lawyer reported, the two met in the Lecce nightlife venues on 18 October. With them there was also a Belarusian student who - according to the defense - would have witnessed the relaxed atmosphere between the 19-year-old and the French student on the street. Then they would go up to the apartment where the 21-year-old lived.
Before leaving the house, the young man took a selfie, the defense clarifies, "in absolute good faith". Meanwhile, the student's parents have been in Italy since yesterday and have been interviewed by the police in recent hours and have recognized the body. «The heart is broken. There is nothing worse for a mother", wrote Julie's mother on Facebook while a group of students participated in a farewell mass in the Cathedral.
(Unioneonline/D)
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