A 31-stone murderer who stabbed his girlfriend to death after an argument over shoddy food has been released from an Italian prison because it cannot provide the low-calorie diet he needs to slim down.
Dimitri Fricano, from Biella in northern Italy, murdered 28-year-old Erika Preti while on holiday in Sardinia in June 2017, stabbing her 57 times after she scolded him for leaving “too many crumbs” on the hotel bed.
Fricano, 35, weighed 18 and a half stone in 2019 when he was jailed for 30 years after admitting the attack.
Now the Surveillance Court of Turin in Italy has released him after serving just a year behind bars as judges heard his weight had risen to 31 stone.
The court ruled that he is “incompatible with the prison regime” and that his incarceration also makes it impossible for him to follow a weight-loss diet, the judges said.
Fricano will serve the rest of his time under house arrest in a town near Biella.
Dimitri Fricano, from Biella in northern Italy, murdered 28-year-old Erika Preti while on holiday in Sardinia in June 2017, stabbing her 57 times after she scolded him for leaving ‘too many crumbs’ on the hotel bed
Franco, who now weighs 31 kilos, has been released from Italian prison because the prison cannot provide the low-calorie diet he needs to slim down
Fricano, 35, weighed 18 and a half stone in 2019 when he was jailed for 30 years after admitting the attack
Fricano had admitted to the brutal murder of his 25-year-old girlfriend Erika Preti when they rowed around him and left crumbs on the bed while he ate
Because he was arrested after the murder, Fricano only spent a year behind bars after the trial in Italy was long postponed due to the pandemic, meaning he was not finally sentenced until 2022.
Prison officials said Fricano’s health was at risk because they couldn’t provide him with the low-calorie diet he needs to lose weight.
He is so heavy, the court was told, that he cannot even get through the prison building without crutches or a wheelchair.
Fricano had admitted to the brutal murder of his 25-year-old girlfriend Erika Preti as they rowed around him and left crumbs on the bed while he ate.
The pair were on holiday in San Teodoro when they argued before heading to the beach.
Fricano had claimed that Erika hit him with a paperweight and that he took a knife and stabbed her dozens of times.
He had previously told police that she had been killed by robbers.
But he finally relented: ‘She insulted me about the bread and then hit me on the head. So I killed her.”
His lawyers also said he suffers from anxiety-depressive bulimia syndrome, personality disorder and sleep apnea.
Doctors say he is at high risk for cardiovascular disease and must follow a special diet that prison cannot provide.
The pair were on holiday in San Teodoro when they argued before heading to the beach
Fricano had claimed that Erika hit him with a paperweight and that he took a knife and stabbed her dozens of times
His lawyers also said he suffers from anxiety-depressive bulimia syndrome, personality disorder and sleep apnea.
Her father Fabrizio Preti told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: ‘The house arrest for Dimitri? “It’s a shameful decision.”
Erika’s father added: “Time heals wounds, they say, but not those of two parents who had a daughter taken away.”
According to the judges, he cannot remain in prison because his ‘enormous size’ and chain smoking put him at immediate risk of death.
They said: ‘He needs help that cannot be provided in the institution.’
But the decision to free Fricano has infuriated Erika’s family.
Her father Fabrizio Preti told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: ‘The house arrest for Dimitri? It’s a shameful decision.
‘No one will give me my little girl back. But for us the pain is still too great to be released so quickly.
‘Time, they say, heals wounds, but not those of two parents from whom a daughter was taken.
‘When some friends informed me, after I read it online, that Dimitri had been placed under house arrest, another wound opened. It was like being stabbed in the heart.
‘This is a rare case. To think that even the mafiosi (mafia) don’t get this treatment.
‘However, they assured me that if he recovered, he would return to the cell. I don’t think that’s really likely.’