Ciro Grillo trial, the defense asks to repeat the first instance

The appeal trial scheduled for Thursday 12 November in Sassari against Ciro Grillo, Edoardo Capitta, Vittorio Lauria and Francesco Corsiglia, convicted in the first instance by the Tempio Pausania Court for the group sexual violence against an Italian-Norwegian student in the summer of 2019 in Porto Cervo, risks being skipped, or at least postponed.

According to the defense lawyers of the four Genoese friends, the first instance sentence must be redone. "Invalidity of the first degree sentence due to lack of signature by the drafter", is the request made by the lawyers, who filed a document in which it is highlighted that the first degree sentence "bears exclusively the signature of the president and only one of the two judges indicated as drafters". According to the lawyers, "the failure to sign a drafter determines a vulnerability which cannot be degraded to a mere irregularity but which determines the nullity of the sentence which must be returned to the Court of Tempio Pausania for the renewal of the null document". The defenders therefore ask that the sentence be rewritten.

The condemnation

At first instance, in September 2025, eight years were inflicted on Grillo, Lauria and Capitta, and six years and six months on Corsiglia, the latter found guilty only of sexual violence, but not of group violence. The public prosecutor Gregorio Capasso, however, had asked for a nine-year sentence for everyone. Prosecutor who, like the civil party, had not appealed the sentence.

Now it will be the Appeal judges who will examine the objections presented by the pool of lawyers of the four young Genoese men. This would be a case that has never occurred in jurisprudence: all three judges of the panel, chaired by Marco Contu with Marcella Pinna and Alessandro Cossu on the side, appeared to be the drafters, actively taking part in the drafting of the sentence, of over 72 pages. But there are only two signatures. That of judge Alessandro Cossu, transferred to Asti a few weeks before the last hearing in Tempio Pausania, would be missing. The sentence could therefore be null and void.

The Appeal judges must now ask Judge Cossu to add the missing signature. In the event that this does not happen, and the judge now in Asti decides not to sign that sentence, on Thursday the magistrates of Sassari could consider its annulment.

In-depth analysis

Grillo Jr, reasons for conviction: "fully reliable" victim