Florence. Sentenced man that harassed woman reporter on live tv

He got an 18 months suspended sentence and an obligation to follow remedial courses. The trial took place in Florence with an abbreviated procedure, one year after the event.

OSSIGENO – December 21, 2022 – He harassed a woman journalist on live television and was sentenced to one year and six months in prison on the 20^th December 2022 by the Court of Florence. The Marche restaurateur Andrea Serrani was tried in abbreviated proceedings for harassing the reporter of Toscana TV, Greta Beccaglia, on the evening of 27^thNovember 2021, while she commented on live television after the match Empoli – Fiorentina from the Castellani stadium in Empoli (Florence).

The judge for the preliminary investigation Antonio Pezzuti ordered the suspension of the sentence for five years, subject to the defendant’s participation in following a recovery path at “institutions that deal with psychological assistance to those convicted of sexual violence”. The investigating judge has ordered compensation for moral and material damages in favour of Greta Beccaglia (establishing a provisional amount of ten thousand euro pending finalisation of the complete amount by the civil court) and a compensation for a total of ten thousand euro for the benefit of the Order of Tuscan journalists and the Tuscan Press Association (AST) representing the national federation, who had filed a civil action. Prosecutor Carmine Pirozzoli had asked for a one year and eight month sentence for Serrani. Neither the defendant, nor the reporter, assisted by the lawyer Leonardo Masi, was present in the courtroom. Present instead were Sandro Bennucci, president of AST, and Giampaolo Marchini, president of the Order of Tuscan journalists. The judge did not permit Ossigeno per l’Informazione to file a civil action. (read here)

On the evening of the offence, under the southern stand of the Castellani stadium, the reporter for Toscana TV described the climate among the fans after the Empoli-Fiorentina match. Among the many Fiorentina supporters, disappointed by the 2-1 defeat, there was also Andrea Serrani. A camera immortalized the restaurateur from the Le Marche region as he harassed the reporter engaged in live television. Greta Beccaglia was silent for an instant, then she replied: “You can’t do this, I’m sorry“. Serrani walked away as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, Beccaglia was asked from the studio “not to take it too seriously”.

The images went around the web in a few minutes amid indignation and general condemnation and then ended up being examined by the investigators of the mobile squad. The molester was identified and Beccaglia filed a formal complaint against him.

“The invitation to all colleagues – reads a note from the journalists’ union – is to always denounce any attempt at intimidation, threat or aggression because each of these episodes is an attack not only on the individual information operator, but to the whole category of journalists”. (ANSA).

GRETA BECCAGLIA’S COMMENT: IT’S A VICTORY FOR ALL WOMEN

This is a victory “that is not only mine but that of all women. Nobody has the right to violate our rights, to consider our body as a trophy; no one must humiliate us, denigrate us, and consider us an object”. Thus Greta Beccaglia, the sports journalist commented on the sentence in an interview with Corriere della Sera in which she declared that she will donate the compensation to a non-profit organisation that fights for the violated rights of women all over the world. “It is not important – she added – that I forgive him. It is he himself who must forgive himself. I hope he understands the harm he did to me, and that this sentence is an example. I don’t feel hate, just sadness. Instead, I would like what happened to help him and many others understand that touching a woman’s bottom, especially violently, is an abominable gesture and not tomfoolery. There is nothing cheerful, nothing carnival. It’s just an act of terrible humiliation. Violence”.

She added that  many have not yet understood this: “I continue to receive messages, even now, from anonymous individuals, who accuse me of having ruined a person, of being a bad, heartless girl. They say it’s my fault because I showed off too much, they write that he was joking. It seems to me that we have gone back in time”. I also received many hateful threats. Even against my family. A photo of a naked man was attached in one letter. I receive them all the time to this day. But I resist, I don’t give in”. (ANSA).

Read also

Why Ossigeno asked for a civil action alongside Greta Beccaglia.

ASP