Gang rape: hearing suspended due to heat, prosecutor's requests postponed. Ciro Grillo: "I'm innocent, I studied law for this trial"

The hearing was suspended due to the heat in Tempio, on the day in which the prosecutor's requests were expected at the end of the closing speech in the gang rape trial against Ciro Grillo and his three Genoese friends Edoardo Capitta, Vittorio Lauria and Francesco Corsiglia.

The prosecutor's requests are therefore postponed until tomorrow, Tuesday 1 July.

For the first time, Ciro Grillo appeared in court and spoke for the first time: he made spontaneous statements in which he proclaimed his innocence . "None of us has ever taken advantage of anyone or anything," he said, "I studied law specifically for this trial and I am a trainee lawyer. I believe in justice and I would like to continue to believe in it."

Then the doors opened to journalists and the chief prosecutor of Tempio, Gregorio Capasso, took the floor, who began his indictment by focusing on the state of "psychophysical inferiority" of the victim, due to the abuse of alcoholic substances . Already in the late afternoon, the prosecutor states, they had started drinking, even spirits. The same boys in the reports, Capasso emphasized, say that when she arrived at Grillo's house she was already tipsy. Furthermore, the prosecutor claims, the alleged victim was fasting.

On the facts, the statements of the alleged victim and the defendants coincide, but the prosecutor stressed that the victim could not have consented, due to alcohol abuse . Furthermore, Capasso revolutionized the timing: the alleged violence, he said, would have taken place in a very short time. First those of Corsiglia, in the bedroom and in the bathroom, then the group one . The prosecutor also showed the video of the famous kiss between the alleged victim and Ciro Grillo, to demonstrate that there was no passion on the part of the girl. But the defense disputed, saying that the kiss they talked about to "exonerate" Grillo is not that and was not documented with a video. A calm reconstruction, without strong tones that of Gregorio Capasso, played on logic and not on emotions . The prosecutor also spoke of narcotic substances, MDMA, perhaps present in a drink: a circumstance that never emerged during the trial and categorically denied by the defense.

Present in the courtroom, in addition to Grillo, were also Edoardo Capitta and Vittorio Lauria. Not Francesco Corsiglia, the only one to speak in the previous hearings, in which he had made statements and had been questioned for 12 hours. The three boys, all sitting in the same bench at the back of the courtroom, wearing white shirts and composed, attended the prosecution with great attention, without showing any particular reactions even in the hardest moments .

Tomorrow we resume with Capasso, who will conclude the prosecution and make the requests. Then it will be the turn of the civil parties.

The story dates back to July 17, 2019: the four young people, all 19 years old, were in Costa Smeralda for a vacation in Beppe Grillo's villa in Cala di Volpe, Arzachena. At the disco they met two girls and then they all went together to Grillo's house. One of the two fell asleep and at that moment the other - at least that's what she says in the complaint - was raped . First by Corsiglia alone, then by all four together according to what was reported.

The defendants have always maintained that the relationship was consensual , something Ciro Grillo reiterated in court today.