At the basis of the decision by the preliminary investigations judge (GIP) of the Court of Palermo to send the minor co-accused of the gang rape back to prison, is the fact that the suspect, entrusted to a community after being released from prison, filmed a series of videos, posted on TikTok, violating the magistrate’s orders, in which he brags about the messages he received from several fans.

The young man also posted threatening phrases on the social platform such as “whoever messes with me messes with death”.

Italy’s privacy watchdog on Wednesday warned Italians not to share a video of the alleged gang rape on July 6-7.

The watchdog warned Telegram and its users not to infringe the alleged victim’s right to privacy.

It said the victim could be identified if the video was shared.

The case has attracted a great deal of media interest across Italy.

The watchdog highlighted the need to safeguard the woman’s dignity and said there might be criminal consequences to sharing the footage, filmed by one of the youths.

Ermal Meta won the Sanremo Song Contest in 2018 with Non mi avete fatto niente. Following the alleged Palermo gang rape, he posted numerous stories of abuse victims, who sent him “thousands” of testimonies. (Photo: ANSA)

On Tuesday another of the youths broke down in tears in court and said he had ruined his life, claiming that he had been dragged into the alleged crime by his friends.

“I am saddened by what happened, I apologise to the girl and her family. I went back together with the 17-year-old boy to help her.

“But I was told that the girl was consenting,” he said.

Italian rapper Ermal Meta, meanwhile, appealed to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Instagram on Wednesday, urging her to work to stop a “massacre of women” after his Insta account was inundated with accounts of sexual abuse after his high-profile comments on the gang rape.

Meta urged Meloni to end “this slaughter” in a live Instagram.

After the Palermo rape he posted the stories of abuse victims, who sent him “thousands” of testimonies.

“They all need to know why this silence of the innocent,” he said, “must end”.

Meta, who won the Sanremo Song Contest in 2018, went on to tell Meloni: “I did not vote for you but you are my prime minister, as are all these women and I address you with the utmost respect, as an institutional office, a woman, a mother and a Christian: do you not believe that the time has come to end this slaughter?”

ANSA