To understand this story well, we must start from the conclusions of the investigation of the prosecutor Giuseppina Mione, of the Juvenile Prosecutor's Office. The numbers -in this case- help to understand it: there are 24 minors investigated for aggravated sexual violence against two 12-year-old girls and for production, possession and dissemination of child pornography material.

The sexual violence is documented by two videos that ended up in the archives of the investigation of the postal police that, since last March, has reconstructed what happened inside a house in the province of Florence where 17 minors had gathered to celebrate New Year's Eve: 9 boys and 8 girls, under 16 years of age. The exception were two girls as young as 12 who, according to the party organizer, had lied about their age.

At the party – according to the reconstruction of the police – everything happened. The evening first turned into a party full of drugs and alcohol. Then came the rape, when the two 12-year-old girls were recorded with the mobile phones of some of the participants having sex with the organizer of the event, a 14-year-old student, who had decided to use his parents' house for the party.

The police discovered everything thanks to the complaint of one of the boys' mothers. Analysis of conversations and videos from the boy's mobile phone revealed scenes of sexual violence with the two underage girls, as well as other videos in which the other participants had also been filmed while being held in places in the house or in the presence of other people.

The videos began to spread. And that is why the prosecutor Mione formulated the hypothesis of the crime of dissemination of child pornography with respect to 15 other boys, who – although they were not present at that party – would have nevertheless contributed later to disseminate the videos of that night, according to what police investigators have reconstructed.

In addition, six minors were accused of abusing the two 12-year-old girls, while three others - suspected of having filmed what happened with their mobile phones - will have to answer, in a different capacity, for the production and possession of child pornography. No other crimes have been committed because, according to a statement, "the law considers that sexual acts between minors are not punishable if they are carried out freely and the younger of the two was at least thirteen years old at the time of the act."

The investigations progressed very quickly. They were specified in searches of the suspects, which then allowed the police not only to analyze the phones seized from the boys and girls, but also to reconstruct how the videos of the evening had been shared with other minors who, in turn, had disseminated them. The minors present at the party, including the two victims, only 12 years old, were also heard in a protected hearing.

The prosecution sent a report to social services about the two victims. The minors in the case are normal children, children of normal people, who probably thought that this way of celebrating New Year's Eve was also normal.

"This is news that baffles us and hurts us," said Fabrizio Rossi, a lawmaker from the ruling Brothers of Italy party. "The children involved, the young victims in the first place, and equally those young executioners who allegedly committed some of the most heinous crimes that can be committed could be our children. Children have the right to an education, not just a family education, to grow up strong in values such as respect."

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