A few lines written in pen on a piece of paper which he read in a low voice, with a monotonous and cold tone, into the microphone, addressing the Court of Assizes of Milan: "In this moment of great pain and profound sadness I offer my apologies to Pamela's family. Since that day our lives have changed profoundly. I know that forgiveness cannot be expected. I understand the weight of my actions and the memory of Pamela will remain indelible in our hearts. I just have to fully assume the consequences for the pain that I caused with a sense of responsibility."
For the first time Gianluca Soncin speaks. And he does so almost a year after the murder of Pamela Genini. He killed her shortly after receiving the phone call in which the 29-year-old announced that their relationship was over. On the evening of 14 October 2025, after obtaining a duplicate key and "breaking into" her apartment, he hit her with 76 blows, first on the terrace of the house and then in the house. After which, according to the reconstruction of the Prosecutor's Office, he staged a suicide attempt with two "superficial" wounds to his neck.
For the charge of aggravated murder, including premeditation, he risks life imprisonment. A sentence that he, with this morning's move and with the defense entrusted to lawyers Pietro Sartori and Simona Luceri, is trying to lighten. This is why the spontaneous declarations even before the preliminary investigation began, with the apologies that were rejected by the young victim's mother and sister. For Una Smirnova, the mother, her lawyer, Nicodemo Gentile, intervened by return post.
During a break in the hearing he did not hold back harsh comments: "They are plastic, insignificant words that take nothing away. He should have accepted those apologies that Pamela made to him, when he dragged her by the hair onto the balcony and begged him not to kill her. He should have stopped there. They are late and have been returned to the sender." And again: "He hasn't convinced anyone and must make peace with his character, with his horrible gesture." While Nicola, Pamela's brother, made it known that he remained "indifferent", at the end of the Veronica hearing, his sister, with a WhatsApp message sent to her lawyer, Sara Contoli, wanted to have her say: "We don't accept excuses. We want a life sentence, no reduction in sentence. He must be ashamed of being in the world". Meanwhile, the defense, with the lawyer Sartori, did not want to make any comments: "I tell you what I have always said. My professional activity takes place in this courtroom and all issues are dealt with there". Inflexible as always, the defender in the hearing was reprimanded several times by the President of the Court, Antonella Bertoja, who rejected his questions, deemed superfluous and irrelevant, even if he managed, not without a fair amount of insistence, to ensure that Soncin got up from the dock and approached that of the professional and popular judges, to show the two scars on his neck, or the result, in his opinion, of the attempt to take his own life immediately after the aggression. "A sham", according to the prosecutor's office. A parenthesis, that of the accused, immediately canceled out by the testimonies. The police and 118 operators who intervened immediately after the crime were heard and then the neighbors who, on the evening of the murder, heard Pamela shouting "I won't do it again, I love you".
They told of the screams and the scene they witnessed. A tenant of the building opposite saw Soncin hit the girl "two or three times", while she was "collapsed" on the balcony, in a desperate attempt to defend herself. "I tried to intervene and shouted 'what are you doing?' - he said -. The police were very quick." They entered the building and kicked down the door, and only narrowly failed to save the young woman.
