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Mother probed for son’s murder in Sicily

A woman in Sicily is being investigated over the murder of her eight-year-old son, whose body was found in a canal last month.

Published: 9 December 2014 11:34 CET
Mother probed for son's murder in Sicily
Police have 48 hours to question the boy's mother, before they must appeal to a judge for more time. Police photo: Shutterstock

Veronica Panarello, 25, was questioned for six hours overnight by police in Santa Croce Camerina, south-east Sicily.

She is accused of murdering her son, Andrea Loris Stival, on November 29th and dumping his body in a canal, Ansa said.

His body was found later that day and a murder investigation launched. Early reports said that the boy suffered a head wound and may have been sexually abused, although coroners have since revealed he was strangled with a cable tie.

READ MORE: Eight-year-old boy 'raped and killed' in Sicily

When two teachers visited the family home on Monday, Panarello allegedly tried to give them a pack of cable ties and told them her son had said they were needed at school. The teachers deny making such a request, Ansa reported.

Panarello denies murder and will face further questioning onTuesday.

She maintains that she drove her son to school the morning he went missing. CCTV footage, however, appears to show the boy returning home and his mother later driving towards the Mulino Vecchio area where his body was found, Ansa said.

“She is being investigated but is not guilty,” said her lawyer, Francesco Villardita.

Investigators have 48 hours to question Panarello and bring charges against her, before they must appeal to a judge for more time. 

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CRIME

Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

Italy is conducting more investigations into alleged fraud of funds from the EU post-Covid fund and has higher estimated losses than any other country, the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) said.

Published: 8 April 2024 17:05 CEST
Italy has most recovery fund fraud cases in EU, report finds

The EPPO reportedly placed Italy under special surveillance measures following findings that 179 out of a total of 206 investigations into alleged fraud of funds through the NextGenerationEU programme were in Italy, news agency Ansa reported.

Overall, Italy also had the highest amount of estimated damage to the EU budget related to active investigations into alleged fraud and financial wrongdoing of all types, the EPPO said in its annual report published on Friday.

The findings were published after a major international police investigation into fraud of EU recovery funds on Thursday, in which police seized 600 million euros’ worth of assets, including luxury villas and supercars, in northern Italy.

The European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, established to help countries bounce back from the economic blow dealt by the Covid pandemic, is worth more than 800 billion euros, financed in large part through common EU borrowing.

READ ALSO: ‘It would be a disaster’: Is Italy at risk of losing EU recovery funds?

Italy has been the largest beneficiary, awarded 194.4 billion euros through a combination of grants and loans – but there have long been warnings from law enforcement that Covid recovery funding would be targeted by organised crime groups.

2023 was reportedly the first year in which EU financial bodies had conducted audits into the use of funds under the NextGenerationEU program, of which the Recovery Fund is part.

The EPPO said that there were a total of 618 active investigations into alleged fraud cases in Italy at the end of 2023, worth 7.38 billion euros, including 5.22 billion euros from VAT fraud alone.

At the end of 2023, the EPPO had a total of 1,927 investigations open, with an overall estimated damage to the EU budget of 19.2 billion euros.

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