Young Women Report Sexual Assault in Italy. "Groped by 30 Men"

Italian authorities are already investigating the case that occurred in Milan during New Year's Eve celebrations.

A group of six young Belgians, who spent a few days on holiday in Italy, claim to have suffered a group sexual assault in Piazza del Duomo, in the city of Milan, during New Year's Eve.

Upon their return to their country, the friends – four girls and two boys – aged 20, reported the attack to the Belgian media and the case took on international proportions. So much so that, according to Corriere della Sera, the Italian authorities have already launched an investigation.

The young men say they were surrounded "by a group of between 30 and 40 men", supposedly from North Africa, who "groped them up and down their clothes", for about "10 minutes", "20 minutes" after midnight night, words that should be repeated, in the next few hours, according to the Italian publication, to the Belgian authorities.

Meanwhile, in Italy, authorities are combing through all the videos from the night captured by nearby video surveillance cameras, hoping to find traces of the attacks and the suspects.

Investigators want to confirm "some details of the testimony" of the alleged victims, including the statement by one of the young women who reported having asked for help from "a police officer who began to cry saying that she was defenseless in that situation."

Corriere della Sera recalls that more than 25,000 people spent New Year's Eve in Piazza del Duomo, under the surveillance of 880 agents.

In 2022, a similar situation occurred in the same square, also during the end-of-year celebrations. On that occasion, around 30 men attacked two young women "in a pack". They even fell to the ground, "on broken glass", but even so, "covered in blood", they were not spared from being attacked. "They threw them from one side to the other as if they were bags or cell phones," the court was told at the time, according to Italian media.

Two men, aged 20 and 19, were sentenced to three years and 10 months in prison and four years and 10 months in prison.