Bartender accused of raping British tourist in Italian nightclub bathroom arrested in Naples after ‘his DNA was found on her dress’

A bartender accused of raping a British tourist was arrested by police in Italy after traces of his DNA were found on her clothes, eight months after she reported she had been attacked in a Naples nightclub.

The suspect reportedly served the young woman drinks and chatted with her while she was drinking at the bar with a friend in July last year.

When she went to the bathroom, he followed her and brutally attacked her, according to local media reports.

She told police: ‘Suddenly he was on top of me and I saw his pants down. There was no consent from me at all. I didn’t give consent.’

After the attack, the traumatized tourist, believed to be in her early 20s, went to hospital and reported the incident to police, who launched an investigation.

Two French tourists are believed to have helped the woman and her friend after the alleged attack, providing them with police contact information.

Although the woman returned to England, she cooperated with Italian authorities by providing DNA evidence and continued to help police locate her attacker.

He returned to Italy in December and provided prosecutor Mariangela Magariello and deputy prosecutor Raffaello Falcone with further statements and identification.

After reviewing the evidence, which also included video footage, police arrested the waiter yesterday.

Naples Judge Carla Sarno ordered his house arrest after prosecutors and the victim’s lawyer, Lucilla Longone, said they feared he might try to flee.

Italian media report that the suspect is 27 years old and was the owner of the bar, which is located in the historic Decumani area of ​​the city.

According to the victim’s testimony, he had seen the two British women passing by and invited them to have a drink at his bar. Corriere della Sera reports.

Police are continuing to investigate CCTV footage and interview witnesses.

This case is part of the broader efforts of the Naples Prosecutor’s Office, specifically the section dealing with gender violence.

The alarming statistics reveal more than 5,000 cases of violence against women every year in Naples, highlighting the urgency of rapid and effective responses according to the rules of the “red code”, according to Il Mattino.

These regulations, passed in 2019, require a prompt and thorough investigation following a report involving serious crimes such as sexual violence or domestic abuse.

The case comes amid intense scrutiny over gender violence in Naples after two girls, cousins ​​aged 11 and 12, suffered a horrific gang rape by a group of teenagers at an abandoned sports complex last year. past.

That incident made front-page news in Italy, when Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited the crime scene and met with local officials to arrange a 10 million euro grant to revitalize the complex and the run-down suburban neighborhood.

Meloni denounced the alleged rapes as “an inhumane act, an infamous crime that has truly shocked everyone,” adding that “there are more stories like this than what appears in the news.”