Posted on: October 26, 2023, 05:26h.
Last updated on: October 26, 2023, 05:27h.
An Italian casino worker in the UK killed two of his compatriots during an acute schizophrenic episode because he believed they had put spells on him.
Andrea Cardinale, 22, attacked his “best friend,” Antonio Calabro, 26, and Calabro’s fiancée, Francesca Di Dio, with a knife and sledgehammer just days before Christmas, 2022.
Cardinale and Calabro had met at dealer school in their native Sicily and traveled to the UK together to work at the Grosvenor Casino in Stockton-on-Tees. They shared an apartment in Stockton, which is in the northeast of England.
Unusual Behavior
The court heard Cardinale had been dismissed from the casino in September 2022 due to his poor work ethic and “unusual behavior.” After his arrest, medical experts concluded that he had been suffering from undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenia for a while.
By the time of the killings, his mental health had deteriorated to the point where his culpability for the murder was minimal, according to Donald Grubin, Professor of Forensic Psychology at Newcastle University.
In the early hours of December 21, Cardinale entered Calabro’s bedroom and used a sledgehammer to bludgeon his friend before stabbing him to death.
Di Dio, who had been visiting her fiancé for Christmas, managed to escape and run upstairs before she was killed with the sledgehammer, prosecutors said.
Cardinale then went to a nearby gas station to buy diesel fuel and a cigarette lighter. He poured the fuel around the property but did not ignite it.
Belief in the Evil Eye
The bodies were discovered by Cardinale’s father, who had flown to the UK after becoming concerned about his son’s behavior and was staying in a nearby hotel.
The Sicilian did not speak English and was unsure how to contact the police in England. Instead, he called the Italian police for help. Local police arrived shortly thereafter, and Cardinale was arrested that afternoon while aimlessly walking the streets of Stockton.
Investigators found that he had searched the internet for “how to remove the evil eye,” “voodoo,” and “how to make a bomb.”
Desire for Answers
Cardinale denied murder but pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.
“The families are desperate for answers, and it is completely understandable. The answer in this case seems to lie in a devastating and acute illness that has made him, albeit in a diminished state, responsible for the death of his closest friend,” defense lawyer Peter Makepeace said.
Judge Paul Watson KC sentenced Cardinale to an indefinite hospital order on Wednesday.