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On December 10, 2011, in the Vallette district of Turin, a torchlight procession is held in solidarity with a 16-year-old girl, who has declared to have been “raped” by some foreign citizens: “gypsies” in her opinion. The neighbourhood takes to the street to protest and asks to “clean up the Continassa”. A group of people, armed with sticks, detach themselves from the head of the procession and attack the Cascina Continassa, where about 50 Roma citizens live. Fifteen minutes of pure violence and panic that put the inhabitants of the settlement to flight, the barracks are set on fire. Meanwhile, the truth comes out: there was no rape, no violence from foreign citizens. The girl made it all up. Despite the delay in the investigation and in the beginning of the legal proceedings, after four years, the Tribunal manages to ensure justice for the victims of this brutal racist attack. An exemplary judgment, intended to make case law, for the clarity of the conviction of a series of offences whose racist aggravating circumstance is recognised. An unworthy episode that not even the photographs contained in the judicial documents can represent in all its brutality. A case showing how foreign nationals are too often used as scapegoats.
