The silence was broken, as he had announced, by the footballer Manolo Portanova, sentenced to six years for gang rape.
"I think our silence has lasted too long - he said today in a press conference in a hotel in Genoa accompanied by his father Daniele and defense attorney Gabriele Bordoni -. I keep asking myself why this is happening. I suffer from what I feel, that I read and for all those people who are part of it and are involved in this affair. Until a few weeks ago the only aim was to wear the most beautiful shirt in the world, now I'm giving up on a dream. Even if I unfortunately have the right to play this the story is above all media. Today we bring evidence that has not been watched".
In recent days, the reasons for the first instance sentence have come out.
According to Siena judge Ilaria Cornetti, the girl abused on the night between 30 and 31 May 2021 "manifested her willingness to want to have sexual intercourse only with Manolo and not to want one in a group with the four boys", expressed will " repeatedly and unequivocally".
"Her dissent was evident and manifest right from the start, and for the entire duration of the group sexual relationship", even so "proof of the criminal responsibility of the defendants was achieved".
"The sentence is silent with respect to all the arguments put forward in written and vocal defense" said today Gabriele Bordoni, Portanova's defense lawyer, according to which "the girl has modified her version with respect to the first messages sent to acquaintances" .
"In the context of a trial I am very ready to respect the opponent as long as the opponent does it with me. Instead we have read a sentence in which none of our elements has been considered and contradicted in the slightest".
The lawyer then stated that the story of a young woman who had suffered sexual violence in the United States in 2015 was replicated with the same expressions, "word for word" by the girl who accused Portanova and the other convicts.
"But this copy was not taken into consideration by the judge - added the lawyer -. I will present an appeal to contradict the sentence: I will propose to the appeal judges of Florence the amount of reasoning not taken into consideration".
Even Portanova's father, Daniele took the floor: "Our silence also defended the girl and I say it as a father. With my wife we educated our son in a certain way and with values and if he really did things for which he is accused and for which he was convicted I would have done justice to myself with the same grit with which I am defending him. Manolo is only in the first degree of judgment but he has already been condemned in the media as a rapist, but people he must know how things went," he concluded.