Overview
- The Corte d'Assise in Naples, which ruled Wednesday, acquitted Nicola Conte with a finding that the conduct did not constitute a crime, with written reasons due within 45 days.
- Prosecutors had sought a 24-year sentence and, during the March 11 hearing, played the woman’s recorded statements from her hospital bed describing assaults.
- The alleged victim, a Polish worker who lived on Ischia in the early 2000s, died of AIDS in November 2017 at age 37 after saying in videos she was raped and forced into unprotected sex.
- Two charges had already lapsed under Italy’s statute of limitations, covering the sexual violence allegations tied to the friend and the injuries alleged by Conte’s wife.
- Prosecutors say Conte knew he was HIV positive and intentionally spread the virus, and Corriere della Sera reports they will appeal while la Repubblica notes some parties linked the verdict to a lack of proven intent.