Homophobic father sentenced to 2 years in prison after he hired a hitman to attack his gay son

A 75-year-old man hired a hitman to attack his son after he told his father that he was gay. 

• The man reportedly paid $3,000 to have a hitman attack his son and break his fingers.
• This was just one of the many attacks he had ordered on his son and his partner.
• The father was charged with aggravated assault and stalking and he has been sentenced to two years in prison.

A father in Italy has been sentenced to two years in prison.

The 75-year-old man could not bear the thought of his son being gay. Thus, he decided to hire a hitman who would attack his son and break his fingers. According to LGBTQ Nation, the father paid approximately $3,000 to have his son (a surgeon) attacked so that he would no longer be able to work. In addition to this, the man had also hired a group of men to attack his son’s partner earlier this year. The men had vandalized the couple’s car and had injured the son’s partner so severely that he had to be hospitalized.

The man found out his son was gay in 2016.

When his son came out in 2016, the man had allegedly seemed somewhat accepting. Taking this further, he had reportedly only said, “Too bad. I wanted grandchildren.” However, the following year, his hatred suddenly grew when he saw a picture of his son and his partner. After this, the man had begun to follow his son and order attacks on the couple. Disturbed and afraid, the son had resorted to speaking to the police. The son explained that he had spent years ensuring that he does not leave his home without someone by his side. Furthermore, he disclosed: “Apart from the patients I knew, I was afraid to make visits, never knowing who I might meet.”

The hitman did not follow through with the attack.

When the father hired the hitman this year, he had explained that his son was a thug. After following the couple for two weeks, the hitman did not find any reason to go through with the order he had been given. Thus, he had allegedly approached the son and explained what he had been hired to do. Subsequently, the son could finally file a complaint and win the case against his father.

Italy’s justice system needs to change.

Hearing the son’s story, a prosecutor told the court that he (and his mother) had “a well-founded fear for their safety and that of the people connected to them.” Moreover in a note to the court, Turin Mayor Chiara Appendino wrote that the father “had decided to ruin [his son’s] life, breaking his hands. The hands of his son, a surgeon by profession. The ‘reason’? He is homosexual. It happened in the 21st century. In the province of Turin. […] Fortunately, the hired man refused to carry out an act as cruel as it was senseless and confessed everything to the victim who, in this way, was able to file a complaint. The father was sentenced to two years, but today will still hear the cry of yet another victim of homo-lesbo-bi-trans-phobia which, as the daily news shows, is absolutely present in our country.”

The mayor further commented on the horrific hate crime:

We need a law as soon as possible, to help bring about a profound cultural change. We need this cultural change to pass through the institutions, from the school, from the families to the citizen. This hatred must be defeated as soon as possible. Without exception.

The father has been charged with aggravated assault and stalking; in addition to this, he has been sentenced to two years in prison.