William Morgan
A 13-year-old boy who is alleged to have killed a tourist by throwing a statuette off a balcony in Naples, Italy, could have his parents thrown in prison as a result of the tragedy.
The incident occurred in September 2024, when the child allegedly picked up a 4.4 pound onyx statuette and lobbed it off the balcony of a hotel in the city's Spanish Quarter, where it fell on the unwitting head of 30-year-old tourist Chiara Jaconis.
The manager of a Parisian Prada store, she had been walking through the city, just in front of her boyfriend Livio Rousseau, when the statuette came out of nowhere and struck her in the head.
Rousseau was caught on camera shouting out 'Chiara' and 'oh my god' as he rushed to her aid and screamed for help. However, she had sadly suffered severe brain injuries and died in hospital two days later.
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Investigators believe the heavy object plummeted around 32 feet before hitting the tourist in the head, shattering once it hit the ground due to the velocity behind it.
With the age of criminal culpability in Italy being 14, prosecutors are now pursuing the boy's parents on manslaughter charges, as they 'should have supervised the boy' prior to the incident on September 15.
The mayor of Naples, Gaetano Manfredi, said: “It is a great sorrow, a tragedy that deeply affects all of us."
Sergio Giordani, the mayor of Padua, where Jaconis grew up, called her death 'absurd and tragic'.
Part of the prosecution's case revolves around the child's alleged history of throwing things from high places like balconies, with the 'problematic' boy apparently chucking 'clothes pegs, a remote control, and a tablet' from similar places in the past.
However, with a juvenile court clearing the teen, the attention of prosecutors seeking justice for the tourist, who was visiting Naples for her 30th birthday, has turned to his parents - who they want to charge with negligent manslaughter.
Yet, his parents, aged 65 and 54, deny any wrongdoing in connection with the tragic death of Jaconis, with their lawyer arguing that the statuette wasn't their property and that they have 'no case to answer'.
Carlo Bianco, the couple’s lawyer, said in a statement: “This is a tragedy that has struck two respectable families, that of poor Chiara and that of the two professionals.”
The parents of the boy who dropped the statuette have even called for the criminal case against their son to be reopened, so that he can clear his name of wrongdoing in court, rather than due to his age.
But regardless of who will ultimately stand trial for the death of Jaconis on a dream vacation, her father Gianfranco Jaconis has called the parents' potential manslaughter charges 'a step' in the right direction.
He said: "It doesn’t reward us or satisfy us because another hard and tortuous journey lies ahead. But it’s a start.
“The only consolation that will help us face this new tortuous journey, made up of hearings, testimonies, and interrogations, is that we are finally getting to the truth – the one we have always sought.”
A preliminary hearing will be held June 26 to decide whether the case should proceed to trial.