A mistress in Italy has been ordered to pay £390,000 in compensation to her lover's wife and children after the man suffocated to death during a bondage sex game. The court determined that the family's full compensation claim was worth approximately EUR 1.125 million (£972,000). However, the lover was ordered to pay only 40 percent of that amount because the 61-year-old victim had willingly participated in the dangerous sexual practice and was deemed 60 percent responsible for his own death.
Details of the Incident
The fatal sex game took place in a loft apartment in Alessandria, a city in Italy's northwestern Piedmont region, in 2016. Paramedics from the 118 emergency service were called to the attic flat but were unable to save him. The Alessandria civil court has now ordered the lover to pay EUR 450,000 (£390,000) in compensation to the deceased man's wife and three children after a 10-year legal battle.
Criminal Case Outcome
The woman had already been convicted in a final criminal ruling of negligent homicide over the death. Judges heard during the criminal case that the pair had regularly practiced bondage, which involves tying up or immobilising a consenting partner using ropes, handcuffs, or blindfolds. The original accusation had been reduced from involuntary manslaughter to negligent homicide after judges ruled there had been shared responsibility between the victim and his lover. The woman was given a one-year prison sentence in the criminal case, but the court left the issue of damages to be decided in a separate civil claim.
Civil Court Ruling
The civil court in Alessandria has now ruled that the lover was 40 percent responsible for the death, while the victim was 60 percent responsible because of his own participation in the sex game. The judge used that split of responsibility to calculate the final compensation payable to the family. The ruling brings to an end a legal case that has lasted nearly a decade since the fatal incident.
