Children say they were forced in satanic sexual abuse and forced to
drink blood in rituals
Sara Macchitella 29 April 2007
[ROME] - Six persons were arrested in Rome on Wednesday accused of
sexually abusing 15 children from the age of three to the age of six at
the nursery school “Olga Rovere” of Rignano Flaminio, in the vicinities
of Rome.
They are expected to be subjected to intense interrogations on Friday.
The accused persons were arrested and passed their first night in
isolation in a jail in Rebibbia, close to Rome.
All six were arrested and accused of a number of offences which included
the abduction of minors, sexual violence within a group, sexual violence
on minors under the age of 10 and obscene actions in public places.
Two teachers, both grandmothers, were reported to have been in service
at the school for decades and one was close to retirement.
Italian Police also arrested a female caretaker at the school, a young
Sri Lankan male and the husband of one of the teachers, who formerly
worked as a cameraman at Italy's state broadcaster RAI.
Police said the children were taken to an apartment near the school
owned by one of the teachers where they were alledgedly made to perform
sexual acts with the Sri Lankan suspect, while the cameraman filmed the
ordeal.
Children who protested or resisted were given sleeping pills,
tranquilisers or other types of drugs.
“They told us that they were only playing, they made punctures on our
cheeks,” said one of the children involved.
Some victims spoke of esoteric and satanic rituals, where adults forced
them to drink human blood, exited from wounds that the same persons caused.
The pupils described the intimate parts of the body of the arrested
persons and mentioned also piercing and tattoos, which a child at such a
tender age wouldn’t know, if he or she has not seen them before.
The little victims described the dreadful scenes saying: “In the villa
where they took us, a man cut his arm and coerced us to drink his own
blood which he poured in a glass, with other substances. Then they made
us do a series of strange games, sort of performances with masked adults
and massages to female teachers with oil”.
The parents were reportedly alarmed by signs of bruising and red
swelling around their children's genital areas, as well as by the dazed
and confused state in which some of them returned home from school.
The city, Rignano Flaminio, is dismayed. People cannot believe that
teachers and other esteemed persons could have done such repulsive crimes.
“It’s a nightmare” Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said, remarking the
umpteenth paedophilia case in Rignano Flaminio.
“These are very serious episodes” he added, emphasising that actually
these things are not so much diffused in Italian schools.
Amato admitted that the challenge against paedophilia is “a difficult
fight” and revealed that the Interior Ministry “was informed” of the
preliminary enquires carried out. “We were anxiously following the case
at the Ministry” he added, “because we know what it means for Italian
families who have children at school”.