The victim would have met the 30-year-old North African in a club. Then total darkness until the sudden awakening in the occupied structure and the desperate attempt to escape from the terrace, falling to the ground

Montecatini Terme, 23 November 2023 – He is accused of attempted sexual assault, kidnapping and robbery, which occurred in the spa and tourist heart of the city. The Carabinieri of the Montecatini Company arrested a thirty-year-old North African who, on Tuesday morning, had entered one of the rooms of the former Hotel Impero, closed for some time, in Viale Bicchierai together with two Eastern European girls.

As we reported extensively in the columns of La Nazione yesterday, the woman, trying to escape from him, tried to lower herself from the terrace of the room on the first floor of the structure, suffering injuries to her back and limbs. The story began on Monday evening, in one of the clubs in the center of Montecatini. The two women met the foreign couple and started talking. After a while they decided to go outside for a walk and, at that point, and here the victim has a memory lapse, she found herself in the hotel room.

According to her statements, the woman was shocked by the approach of her attacker, who allegedly attempted to abuse her. For this reason, she decided to escape, finding the terrace as the only way, despite the heavy risks that posed by having to lower herself from three meters high. Just at that moment, a person was passing by who, as soon as he saw her fall to the ground, called the emergency number 112. In the meantime, the North African came out of the hotel, forcibly bringing the woman back inside. Once on site, the ambulance operators found no one and decided to notify the police. Once the Carabinieri of the Montecatini Company entered the building, they found the man, present irregularly on the national territory, and two women from the East, including the injured girl. The woman was freed by the force and taken to Pistoia hospital by rescuers. Once she regained consciousness, with the help of an interpreter, she reconstructed the story, allowing her attacker to be arrested. The man is now in precautionary custody in the Dogaia prison, in Prato, at the disposal of the judicial authorities.

The episode undoubtedly remains worrying, because it encompasses various aspects related to safety and degradation in the city. Like other accommodation facilities closed or up for judicial auction, the former Hotel Impero is also easily accessible and would need to be made safe. The police have frequently caught stragglers, drug addicts and homeless people inside such buildings. The Institute of Judicial Sales has been repeatedly requested by the police to resolve the situation. Even kids who hang out at school know that disused hotels are a great place to hide. The mix between safety issues and those related to degradation has given rise to a situation that could have ended worse. Everything is made more serious by the fact that this story did not happen in a sad suburb, but in the hotel and tourist heart of the city. The news, a few hours after the events, had already made the rounds on the Internet and various social networks.