Lorenzo Carbone, 50, told camera crews outside his home in Spezzano di Fiorano, Italy, he had killed how mother, 80-year-old Loretta Levrini, in a live news broadcast
A man confessed to killing his own mother live on television, as he said he “couldn’t manage her” any longer.
Loretta Levrini, 80, was found dead in her bed by her daughter last weekend in Spezzano di Fiorano, a town in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Police had been searching for her son, Lorenzo Carbone, when he stopped to speak to television crews outside the home.
The 50-year-old told reporter Fabio Giuffrida, from Italian TV programme Pomeriggio 5, how his mother had been living with dementia. He said on the news report: “I strangled her, I don’t know why I did it. I couldn’t manage her. Every now and then she made me angry as she kept repeating herself.”
He explained he used a shoelace to kill Loretta. He then fled to the nearby town of Pavullo before returning to the home, where he approached the television cameras.
Reporter Mr Giuffrida, who immediately called the police in the wake of the alleged confession, said of the incident: “Never would I have thought I would find myself in front of an alleged killer. At one point I noticed a man who was nearing the entrance, he was sweating, he was in a state of confusion.”
The incident has caused outcry in Italy, unhappy at some of the tactics used by people in the industry. Gaia Tortora, who reports on a rival station, wrote on X: “What happened today at Pomeriggio5 is very serious. This is not our job. Having torn up the code of ethics, we are hitting rock bottom.”
Another person added: “I saw Lorenzo Carbone’s confession live on ‘Pomeriggio Cinque’ and I wondered was it right to expose a person in an obvious state of shock in front of the cameras? Can we talk about ethical journalism when audiences comes before dignity. What do you think about the possible ‘distorted use of news’ in this context?”