The allure of a drug Italian steals more than 350 photos of women from cemeteries

A 50-year-old Italian man pursued a strange collecting passion for several years. He stole grave photos of dead women from cemeteries in Rome and kept them in albums at home. Now he has been convicted.

A 50-year-old Italian man has been sent to prison for a very strange fondness for photos of deceased women: the man was sentenced to two years and four months in prison by a court in Rome for breaking photos of the dead out of gravestones in cemeteries in the Italian capital.

His downfall was that he had also stolen the ashes of a young woman who had died in a traffic accident.

During the investigation into this theft, the police discovered more than 350 photos of dead women at the man's home - all neatly listed and stuck in albums or packed in boxes, according to reports in various newspapers. He had also written down in a notebook exactly when he had taken the photos. This showed that he had been visiting cemeteries for more than a decade. In Italy, it is common to commemorate deceased relatives with photos on gravestones or crosses.

Picture thief justifies himself with a pathological disposition

The man explained his predisposition in court by saying that such images were a kind of drug for him that he could not tear himself away from. He could not help but look at pictures of deceased women, especially young and beautiful women. The defense spoke of a pathological urge. However, the judge did not believe this argument, but considered him fully sane.

The seized images are now to be returned to his relatives. However, according to the court, this is no longer possible in all cases. The 50-year-old will have to answer for the theft of the ashes in a separate trial. He faces further imprisonment for desecration of a corpse and trespassing.

SDA