Post by depletedreasons on Mar 26, 2008 7:44:00 GMT -5
Bulgarian Girls Abused With Piranhas In Evil Circus
Nick Pisa, In Rome
Updated:11:52, Wednesday March 26, 2008
A "circus of horrors" in which children were plunged into piranha tanks and covered with deadly snakes has been smashed by Italian police.
Flesh-eating fish were used in circus
Officers raided the circus and arrested three people after being tipped off by worried spectators who were concerned at the treatment of the children. Besides the flesh-eating piranhas act there was also another in which children were put in glass tanks and had deadly snakes slither over them.
The children, sisters aged between 16 and 19, were all part of a Bulgarian family hired by the Marino Circus based in Salerno near Naples, Italy. Police said the arrested trio were owner Enrico Raffaele Ingrassia, 57, his son William, 33, and son-in-law Gaetano Belfiore, 25.
Witnesses said the 19-year-old girl was forced to hold her breath in the piranha tank and had her head pushed back under every time she surfaced for air.
Her sister was also forced to lie in a glass tank and was covered in snakes and tarantula spiders and on one occasion was bitten. According to the police, the girls and their parents were forced to live in ''inhuman'' conditions in the backs of two lorries.
Two Bulgarian citizens have also been placed under investigation for helping the circus lure Eastern Europeans on false job promises. Several other circus "slaves" managed to escape before the tip-off about the appalling conditions, police said.
Prosecutor Mariella De Masellis, who led the investigation, said: "In essence, these poor children were forced into slavery for this circus. "These people were slave drivers and forced the children into acts with dangerous animals.
"They would work 20 hours a day seven days a week and be paid £70 for risking their lives. "They had been told they would be paid £350 a week.
news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1310730,00.html
Nick Pisa, In Rome
Updated:11:52, Wednesday March 26, 2008
A "circus of horrors" in which children were plunged into piranha tanks and covered with deadly snakes has been smashed by Italian police.
Flesh-eating fish were used in circus
Officers raided the circus and arrested three people after being tipped off by worried spectators who were concerned at the treatment of the children. Besides the flesh-eating piranhas act there was also another in which children were put in glass tanks and had deadly snakes slither over them.
The children, sisters aged between 16 and 19, were all part of a Bulgarian family hired by the Marino Circus based in Salerno near Naples, Italy. Police said the arrested trio were owner Enrico Raffaele Ingrassia, 57, his son William, 33, and son-in-law Gaetano Belfiore, 25.
Witnesses said the 19-year-old girl was forced to hold her breath in the piranha tank and had her head pushed back under every time she surfaced for air.
Her sister was also forced to lie in a glass tank and was covered in snakes and tarantula spiders and on one occasion was bitten. According to the police, the girls and their parents were forced to live in ''inhuman'' conditions in the backs of two lorries.
Two Bulgarian citizens have also been placed under investigation for helping the circus lure Eastern Europeans on false job promises. Several other circus "slaves" managed to escape before the tip-off about the appalling conditions, police said.
Prosecutor Mariella De Masellis, who led the investigation, said: "In essence, these poor children were forced into slavery for this circus. "These people were slave drivers and forced the children into acts with dangerous animals.
"They would work 20 hours a day seven days a week and be paid £70 for risking their lives. "They had been told they would be paid £350 a week.
news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1310730,00.html