Six convicted in school collapse near Turin
(ANSA) – Turin, October 28 – Six people were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 26 months to four years on Monday in the collapse of a high-school ceiling in 2008 that killed one student and injured others.
One person was acquitted in an appeal of the decision that initially saw just one of the seven accused convicted in the disaster in November 2008 at the Darwin high school in the northwestern Italian town of Rivoli near Turin.
Cinzia Caggiano, the mother of victim Vito Scafidi, wept as the verdicts were read.
Acquitted in Monday’s appeal decision was a provincial official, Massimo Masino, while three other officials were convicted.
Michele Del Mastro was sentenced to four years, Sergio Moro to three years and four months, and Enrico Marzilli was sentenced to three years.
Also sentenced were three teachers who were responsible for school safety: Paolo Pieri, sentenced to two years and six months; Diego Sigot, two years and two months; and Fulvio Trucano, sentenced to two years and nine months in jail.
Trucano fainted as the sentence was pronounced.
An award of 400,000 euros was also announced by the court, with 300,000 euros of that going to the victim’s mother.
The case was seen as turning a spotlight on the issue of school safety standards.