Shocked viewers

Live on TV: Italian man confesses to murdering mother

A reporter holds the microphone, his colleague touches Lorenzo Carbone sympathetically on the upper arm - here the 50-year-old confesses to the murder of his mother!

(Bild: Pomeriggio5/Canale5)

An unbelievable murder shocks Italy! Lorenzo Carbone (50) confessed to cold-bloodedly strangling his 80-year-old mother Loretta Levrini in front of the cameras - live on Italian television. Critics are calling for consequences and accusing the media of shameless sensationalism.

"I strangled her" - these words from Lorenzo Carbone shocked Italy when they were broadcast by the television station Pomeriggio5. The 50-year-old man from the province of Modena had brutally killed his mother, 80-year-old Loretta Levrini, who was suffering from dementia. She had been found lifeless by her daughter in her house in Spezzano di Fiorano the day before the broadcast. Investigators suspected foul play early on and the search for Carbone, who had lived with his mother, began.

He appeared before reporters confused and dazed
However, Carbone had fled to the nearby town of Pavullo after the crime in order to gain some distance, as he later recounted in an interview. It was only when he returned to the house the day after the crime that the TV crew from Pomeriggio5 came across Carbone by chance. They had been there researching the case. The reporter found him confused and dazed in front of the mother's house.

When asked if he was Lorenzo, he confirmed that he was and shortly afterwards made a full confession. In shocking detail, Carbone described how he suffocated his mother first with a pillow, then with a pillowcase and finally with cords. "It became too hard for me," he told the reporter.

After the confession, Canale 5 also showed the arrest live on TV.

(Bild: Pomeriggio5/Canale5)

Media under fire: Sensation before morality?
Immediately after the confession, the journalists informed the Carabinieri, who arrived shortly afterwards and arrested Carbone. But the event was already on the screens. The Canale 5 channel not only showed the shocking confession, but also the arrest live on TV. This procedure was met with fierce criticism. In particular, the fact that the confused man was questioned in front of millions of viewers while the police were already on their way was met with widespread disapproval.

Program director Myrta Merlino defended her decision to broadcast the interview. She explained to the "Corriere della Sera" that she only had a few minutes to decide. "I informed the Carabinieri immediately and got their permission to broadcast the images," she said. Although some of the most brutal details of the murder were edited out, the broadcast of the dramatic scene caused a storm of indignation.

The decision to present the confession and arrest in this way was hotly debated on social networks and in the media. Critics such as journalist Ermes Antonucci described it as the "low point of the media circus". Gaia Tortora from TG, the news program on Italian TV station La7, added: "What happened today shows that we have reached the nadir of ethics."