NAPLES – The Campania region’s Garante dell’infanzia association confirms that there are more than 200 cases of intrafamilial abuse carried out on minors. Cesare Romano, a spokesperson for the association admits that following a investigation that he commissioned in Campania “the level of incest cases is significantly higher than in other regions.”

 A secluded group of apartment blocks in Afragola is the setting for a horrific number of incest cases, an all too common phenomenon in Campania, where 87 percent of which involve minors between the ages of six and ten, an official from the area reports.

 The conglomeration holds around 8,000 inhabitants within its grotty boundaries, where there is no shop, bar, cinema, or basic quality of life, and where the priest, Ciro Nazzaro, preaches sermons which remind his parishioners that they “must not rape children, incest is a crime.”

 Romano recognises that the Salicelle area, the site of the conglomeration of apartment blocks is particularly appalling. Nearby is the Parco Verde di Caivano, where these cases of child incest frequently occurs, and where six-year-old Fortuna Loffredo was found dead, having been a victim of sexual abuse before being thrown from a seventh-floor window.

 The local authorities, in collaboration with the Garante dell’infanzia association, have been conducting inquests into these allegations to try and get to the bottom of this grave issue. They have noted other areas which also represent “critical situations”, including the neighbourhood of Madonnelle di Acerra and other under-privileged areas of Naples.

 However, according to the priest of Caivano, Maurizio Patriceiello, the means to put a stop to this all to common occurrence are not being supplied, “the predicament of poverty leads to paedophilia” he adds. The investigation that was run by Garante dell’infanzia revealed that in the majority of cases there was evidence of concealed abuse and rapes carried out within the walls of the home, perpetrated by those that the children knew.

 The figures which confirm the extent of this horrific phenomenon in Naples, such as 80 percent of the victims being of preadolescent age, do not even expose the complete truth. Despite best efforts, the results are mere estimations given the way that most of the crimes took place behind family walls and the way in which “the confusion victims undergo due to the abusers position in the family” renders communication of the incidents more difficult.

 Ernesto Caffo, president of Telefono Azzuro, an organisation that deals with domestic and sexual abuse for minors, has communicated his appreciation that the Garante association has brought this issue to light and added that, “In our country, there is a huge lack of services and methods to detect these problems that so affect the lives of children.” He hopes that by bringing these issues to the forefront of people’s attention, positive steps will made towards bringing them to an end and that young victims “will no longer be left to suffer these grave situations in silence.”

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