A prison call, and a missing chain

The case turned on a short phrase and on evidence the court would not keep. Degiorgio’s former partner, who is also the mother of his youngest son, reported that during a call from prison on 7 December 2022 he told her, “I will fix you.” She said she understood that as a threat. According to Newsbook, she told the court that her son spent a year checking underneath the car before school because, when Degiorgio says those words, it can end with “a bomb exploding”.

Degiorgio did not deny saying the words. He testified that they referred instead to maintenance payments he had been making voluntarily, which he said amounted to €5,000 a month, and that he stopped those payments shortly after the call.

The prosecution presented a recording of the call. On paper, that should have settled at least part of the argument. Instead, the court accepted the defence’s argument that the prosecution had failed to guarantee the recording’s authenticity and traceability, and the recording was discarded.

That left the court trying to identify intent without what looked like its clearest piece of evidence. Magistrate Ingrid Bianco said she could not confirm the true meaning of Degiorgio’s message in those circumstances.

There were two charges. One, for uttering insults or threats under a contravention, had already become time-barred because the three-month period had elapsed before Degiorgio was charged. The second, more serious charge concerned making threats via an electronic device.

Bianco also took into account the time it took for Degiorgio’s former partner to file a police report — five weeks, including the Christmas period, according to Newsbook — as well as the fact that the payments were ultimately stopped by Degiorgio.

So the acquittal is a narrow finding, but a clear one. The court did not say the words were benign. It said the prosecution had not proved the threatening intent behind them to the standard required for a criminal conviction.