Victory for Italian mother who wore shocking T-shirt showing her 18-year-old daughter’s dismembered body to court hearing as her killer loses his appeal against life sentence
- Alessandra Verni wore to court a printed T-shirt of her daughter’s mutilated body
- Her daughter’s killer attended an appeal over rape charges on Wednesday
- Verni wore the shirt to ‘shake consciences’ as killer seeks reduction in sentence
The mother of a murdered 18-year-old who bravely attended court wearing a T-shirt of her daughter’s mutilated body has today gained justice as the teenager’s killer lost his appeal against a life sentence.
Alessandra Veni’s teenage daughter Pamela Mastropietro was murdered by Innocent Oseghale in January 2018 before he dismembered her body in an attempt to get rid of the evidence.
Oseghale, 32, had appealed against additional charges that he had raped Pamela before he killed her – and if successful, his life sentence would be reduced.
But Alessandra, who has been tirelessly campaigning against Oseghale getting a reduced sentence, today got some sense of closure as an Italian appeals court ruled that the Nigerian drug dealer had sexually abused Pamela and upheld his life term.
The Perugia court ruled that Oseghala had raped Pamela after supplying her with heroin.
Alessandra Verni attended court wearing a T-shirt of her daughter’s dismembered body last month
Pamela Mastropietro (pictured with her mother) was killed after she left an addiction recovery centre in Macerata in the Marche region in early 2018
Pamela Mastropietro was murdered and dismembered in 2018 by drug dealer Innocent Oseghale (pictured)
Alessandra has fought an uphill battle with the justice system since 2018, as delays and appeals have prevented her from finding closure after her daughter was dismembered and then murdered by Oseghale in the eastern commune of Pollenza.
But this latest ruling will provide her with some sense of closure.
The grieving mother had become so frustrated with the countless number of appeals and delays that she last month attended court wearing a T-shirt showing horrific images of her daughter’s mutilated body.
‘It was painful to show those images, but I had no choice,’ said Alessandra at the time.
Alessandra bravely stood in front of Oseghale in the courtroom wearing the T-shirt so that he could see her daughter’s mutilated body.
‘I go to bed every night to dream of Pamela,’ she told La Stampa at the time. ‘That is why I showed that photo.’
The T-shirt showed Pamela’s dismembered head. The series of harrowing pictures were also formed so that the detached body parts made up the structure of a body.
The photos on the shirt had not so far been shared with the public.
La Stampa reported they were autopsy images taken by forensics.
Ms Verni told the Italian outlet, ‘anyone who saw those images knew that if they were made public they would shake consciences.’
Oseghale (pictured) was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019, with eighteen months in solitary confinement
Mastropietro mutilated and dismembered body was found inside suitcases left in a ditch
Verni is still seeking justice five years after the death of her daughter.
In 2019, she said after a hearing that a fast-track trial would be good so long as ‘all the truth comes out’.
‘Because it was not only him,’ she said, referring to Oseghale.
Four years later, Verni appealed for a search for accomplices.
She told La Stampa, ‘there were other people with Osenghale the day he killed Pamela […] I feel that no one is being investigated. No one is looking for these men.’
In another interview, the distraught mother said: ‘No one is looking for the accomplices of the murderer.
‘In my battles for justice, I always have my daughter’s friends by my side. Watching them grow up is like watching her grow up.’
Oseghale, 32, was found guilty and sentenced to jail in 2019 for murdering 18-year-old Mastropietro, and is appealing against part of his conviction for rape.
Pamela Mastropietro was murdered and dismembered in January 2018 by a drug dealer
Mastropietro’s parents Stefano and Alessandra Verni stand by a memorial for their daughter
Pamela Mastropietro (second left) with her family. She was murdered and her body dismembered in January
Mastropietro was killed after she left an addiction recovery centre in Macerata in the Marche region in early 2018.
Investigators understood that she had decided to leave the facility and made the journey to the local train station on foot.
Having left the recovery centre, Mastropietro attempted to find drugs in Macerata. She then met Oseghale, a local drug dealer, then aged 29.
A day later, a passer-by noticed two abandoned suitcases in a small ditch. Mastropietro’s mutilated and dismembered body was found inside the case.
Drug dealer Oseghale was accused of selling Mastropietro drugs, before he then detained, raped, and stabbed her.
In 2019, courts heard Mastropietro was still alive when Oseghale ‘tried to tear her to pieces’.
Police found Mastropietro’s bloodied clothing at Oseghale’s home.
Oseghale claimed in his testimony that Mastropietro died from a heroin overdose.
However, an autopsy showed that she died due to successive abdominal stabbings. It also found that her body was dismembered while she was still alive.
Oseghale was accused of murder, sexual assault, concealment, and destruction of a body. He disputed the charges at the trial in February 2019.
He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, with eighteen months in solitary confinement.
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