Couple from Cremona convicted Abandoned adopted son after only five days

26 March 2023

Cremona – A man and woman from the Cremona area have been sentenced to three months in prison and a fine of 10,000 euros for failing to meet their duty of care and maintenance. The background to the court decision is shocking. The couple are said to have abandoned their adopted son after he was taken into his home just five days earlier.

A 26-year-old Brazilian, who was only ten years old at the time of the events, reported the case. After his adoptive parents turned their backs on him, he lived a poor life and went down the wrong path. For a series of petty thefts, he ended up in prison in Modena. "I ask no pity. I have served my just punishment. But in prison I met someone for the first time who listened to me and who explained my rights and my obligations. The only thing I received from my adoptive parents is my last name," the young man told Corriere della Sera.

Because he met the lawyer Gianluca Barbiero behind bars, who supports him as legal counsel, the Brazilian experienced justice after 16 years - now also in the second instance. The verdict on appeal came in 20221 in Brescia.

On August 30, 2007, the Cremona couple returned to Italy from Brazil with the adoption permit from the São Paulo court in their pockets. On September 4, the husband and wife decided not to adopt the child again. They claimed the ten-year-old had pointed a knife at his adoptive father.

When the Brazilian later filed a complaint, he instead claimed that his adoptive mother hit him with a belt after he argued with the couple's biological son.

After being abandoned by his adoptive parents, his life became a vagabond existence. In Modena, between 2016 and 2017, he committed a series of minor offenses for which he was sentenced to one year in prison. In prison, his lawyer persuaded him to file a complaint against his adoptive parents. They would have made the child feel "inappropriate and not right".

“I was only with them for five days. To this day I wonder what they expected from a ten-year-old boy,” admits the now 26-year-old. Today he lives again in the area of ??Cremona. He has an apartment there and has a regular job.

.