The Italian mother of a murdered 18-year-old appeared in court wearing a t-shirt printed with her daughter’s dismembered body, after her killer appealed part of her conviction.
Pamela Mastropietro was murdered and dismembered in January 2018 by Nigerian drug trafficker Innocent Oseghale. He appealed part of the sentence where he was initially found guilty of sexually assaulting the teenager before killing her.
Mastropietro’s mother, Alessandra Verni, appeared before the Perugia Court of Appeal yesterday wearing a t-shirt that showed the gruesome images of her daughter’s body.
At one point, a clash broke out in the courtroom, with Verni and Oseghale being separated from each other by the police. The court hearing will resume next month.
Alessandra Verni appeared in court wearing a t-shirt printed with her daughter’s dismembered body
Pamela Mastropietro was murdered and dismembered in January 2018 by a Nigerian drug trafficker
Oseghale (pictured) was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019, with eighteen months in solitary confinement
“Did you see what they did to her?” Verni said of her murdered daughter.
“This man, who raped and tortured her, should rot in prison.
Her T-shirt showed her daughter’s dismembered head. The series of heartbreaking images were also formed so that the detached body parts constituted the structure of a body.
Oseghale, 32, was convicted and sentenced to prison in 2019 for the murder of 18-year-old Mastropietro and is appealing part of his rape conviction.
Oseghale arrived in Italy in 2014 as an asylum seeker but had abandoned his refugee program in 2017, a year before he murdered Mastropietro.
The judge asked Oseghale if he intended to attend the next hearing in February. After talking to his attorney, he told the court he wouldn’t.
Mastropietro’s mutilated and dismembered body was found in suitcases left in a ditch
Pamela Mastropietro was murdered and dismembered in January 2018 by Nigerian drug trafficker Oseghale (pictured)
Verni, who was in the courtroom at the time wearing the T-shirt, shouted out loud: “Now even an executioner is asked whether or not he wants to participate in the hearing.
“Let’s also throw him a red carpet at this point,” she added.
The two then came face to face and as the police led Oseghale out of the courtroom, he shouted, “Enough judicial oppression”.
Verni charged at him and shouted, “Tell me… tell me what you want.”
Both were immediately removed by the police from the courtroom.
Oseghale’s life sentence will be shortened if the appeals court finds him innocent of rape.
Mastropietro was killed after leaving a drug rehabilitation center in Macerata in the Marche region in early 2018.
Investigators understood that she had decided to leave the facility and made the trip to the local train station on foot.
Pamela Mastropietro’s parents, Stefano Mastropietro and Alessandra Verni, stand next to a memorial for their daughter
Pamela Mastropietro (second from left) with her family. She was murdered and her body dismembered in January
Pamela Mastropietro (pictured with her mother) was killed after leaving a drug treatment center in Macerata in the Marche region in early 2018
An autopsy showed that Pamela Mastropietro had died following successive stab wounds to the abdomen. He also found that her body had been dismembered while she was still alive.
After leaving the recovery center, Mastropietro attempted to find drugs in Macerata. She then met Oseghale, a local drug dealer from Nigeria, then 29 years old.
A day later, a passerby notices two abandoned suitcases in a small ditch. Mastropietro’s mutilated and dismembered body was found inside the crate.
Drug dealer Oseghale was accused of selling drugs to Mastropietro, before arresting, raping and stabbing her. Police found Mastropietro’s bloody clothes at Oseghale’s home.
The Nigerian claimed in his testimony that Mastropietro died of a heroin overdose.
However, an autopsy showed that Mastropietro had died from successive stab wounds to the abdomen. He also found that her body had been dismembered while she was still alive.
The Nigerian was charged with murder, sexual assault, concealment and destruction of bodies. He disputed the charges at trial in February 2019.
He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, with eighteen months in solitary confinement.
