New Year’s Eve in Piazza del Duomo, Milan, Italy.
19-year-old British woman and three Belgian tourists say they were sexually assaulted by organized groups of men on New Year’s Eve in Milan. Liquid would have left Imogen breathless: “I couldn’t defend myself.”
A few days’ holiday in Milan quickly turned into a New Year’s nightmare for a 19-year-old British girl.
On a night in which several women claimed to have been sexually assaulted by organized groups of men in Piazza del Duomo, the central square of the Italian city, the young British woman, who was visiting Milan with her boyfriend, was allegedly attacked for around 30 men who intended to rape her.
The more terrified she was, the “more excited” these men became, Imogen reveals to .
It all started when the young woman left the group with a friend to go to the bathroom. Uncomfortable with several inappropriate touches that she felt along the way, Imogen, now with her group of friends, went “grabbed and pulled back” in the middle of the crowd, while friends were distracted by recording the fireworks. She was surrounded by around 30 men she didn’t know: “they held me in their arms, in their hands. I couldn’t defend myself“.
“Several men, at the same time, began to grope me, while another tried to pull my dress up”, says the university student: “I was struggling to free myself and they were having fun with my anguish ”.
The young woman also said that they threw an “unknown liquid” on her, which made her eyes and nose burn, leaving her and her friends “with the feeling of can’t breathe”.
“As I panicked and struggled to free myself, it became clear that they enjoyed my anguish and this only excited them”, reinforces the young woman, who believes she only escaped because her friends heard her screaming as she “fought for survival ”.
There were no police at the scene, revealed the young woman who has since returned to the UK. When the group of friends finally encountered agents, they reportedly told him there was “nothing they could do” but reportedly changed their attitude when they saw blood.
British teen’s 30-man rape hell which will horrify every parent: How a young woman’s trip to Italy turned into a fight for survival against mob ‘who grew more excited’ the more terrified she became
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline)
“I am devastated to have to fight this battle so early in my adult life.” The story was advanced by the Belgian agency Sudinfo and shared by the British Telegraph and Daily Mail, but the British woman’s case was not the only one that night.
“Night of horror” with several reports of sexual assault
Italian police are investigating other sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve in Milan. Among the victims will be other Belgian tourists, who, according to DailyMail, were accompanied by Imogen. The young women said they were surrounded by around 40 men who groped them under their clothes, in what they described as a “horror night”.
The women, also on holiday in the Italian city, said these men forcibly grabbed them while others groped them. One of the victims, aged 20, tells that the attack was carried out by men between 20 and 40 years old and lasted about 10 minutes, until finally a middle-aged Italian man intervened and helped them escape.
“Three of us were victims of sexual assault. A friend of mine had her breasts groped and her buttocks touched. The men put their hands down my pants. It went too far”, he revealed. “We feel powerless in the face of so much violence. They could have killed or raped us and no one would have noticed”, he stated: “there were so many people around us that we couldn’t move”.
Similar incidents were reported on the same night by Italian women and tourists from Spain and South America. Italian police are investigating whether the attacks were premeditated and analyzing video footage from the square.
Incident is being linked to immigration
Parallels with a phenomenon known as “taharrush gamea” or “collective harassment” were quickly drawn by some media and local politicians, but the young British woman attacked on New Year’s Eve denies that the attack had a religious origin.
“I am very disturbed after reading many articles that claim it was a matter of religion, indirectly blaming Islam, while at the same time claiming that our attack was taharrush gamea,” she clarified, and “It’s a total and blatant lie to state that our group was attacked by men with Palestinian flags,” he told Sudinfo.
“I find it disgusting that people use our traumatic history to promote a political agenda and I want people to understand that many of the descriptions I have read are completely false. I will not allow my sexual attack to become an opportunity to divide people: it is a moment to unite women and the Italian people, outraged that this happened during a joyful celebration.”
The attacks were condemned by Italian authorities and reignited debates about the integration of young second-generation migrants. Silvia Scurati, regional politician, classified the attacks as a “failure of integration” and called for urgent action to resolve the issue.
The chaotic context of these mass attacks makes it difficult to identify those responsible. In a similar case recorded in Cologne, dating back to 2016, despite 290 men being investigated, only 32 were convicted and only two were found guilty of sexual assault. The investigation in Milan faces the same challenges.
Tomás Guimarães, ZAP //
