Massacre in the family in Paderno Dugnano: Riccardo’s story and the key point of premeditation

He made only one request, to see his grandparents. Riccardo, the 17-year-old who confessed to killing his mother, father and 12-year-old brother, in Paderno Dugnano on the night between Saturday 31 August and Sunday 1 September, he is in a room in the first reception centre of the juvenile prison in Milan. At Beccaria, reports the Evening Couriermeets educators and psychologists and reads the books he took from the library.

On the morning of Tuesday 3 September he met with the lawyer Amedeo Rizza who was indicated by his maternal grandparents and the prison chaplain, Don Claudio Burgio. The lawyer said that he is in good health, but tired. The boy was questioned again in the afternoon at the request of the magistrates of the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office who are investigating the case. They wanted to clarify some elements. The lawyer says that Riccardo spoke of «something wrong but extemporaneousit is clear that if he had thought about it he would not have done it. A gesture that he would never have made”.

He clarified what he had already stated during the interrogation on Sunday. The magistrates reiterate the aggravating circumstance of premeditation. Sabrina Ditaranto, acting prosecutor for minors in Milan, explains upon leaving prison: «It remains premeditation. He is quite calm, to say “serene” would be excessive. He has scaled down the premeditation a bit, it remains a thought not immediately preceding the action. Repentance takes time”. According to the lawyer Rizza there is no premeditation, but it is one of the aspects that will have to be seen before the judge. The boy said that he had never thought before of killing his family members, but that he was looking for a way to get out of the malaise he was experiencing.

A legal guardian outside the family has been appointed because the grandparents or other relatives are also injured parties. The 17-year-old’s lawyer also reported the boy’s words: «The pain what he feels now is tied to what he did and not to the consequences for himself. He knows perfectly well that he will have to pay for what he did, he will be sentenced and will have to do some prison time. He is sorry, he has realized the gravity of what he did.”

The seriousness is evident and underlined by the details that are emerging from the first interrogation and the findings of the Carabinieri. «When I had the knife in my hand I started, and from there I decided not to stop because I thought it would be worse. I don’t remember how many stab wounds I gave my brother, there were a lot”. This is the boy’s story. The stab wounds will be 68, mostly around the neck and most aimed at his brother.

He speaks of an explosion. In the first report he had said that he had already thought of committing this act. «I thought that by killing them I could live in a free world.. I thought that by separating myself from my family I could live alone. I had already intended to do it the night before. But I didn’t do it because I wasn’t convinced. I didn’t feel like it.” He said he went down to the kitchen late at night when everyone was asleep after his father’s 51st birthday party. There were friends and relatives. He, his brother and other boys had been playing PlayStation in the bedroom. As already mentioned, the original plan was different: “The plan was to kill my brother and father with a knife and then pretend that my mother had attacked me and I had defended myself. Then when I saw that they didn’t die I changed my version, claiming that it was my father.”