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Featured Image Credit: Newsflash
Topics: Crime, True Crime
Dominic Smithers
A man who stabbed his partner 57 times has been freed from prison after just one year.
In 2017, Dimitri Fricano, from Italy, brutally murdered his girlfriend, Erika Preti, following an alleged argument about his sloppy eating habits.
After being arrested, the 35-year-old was eventually convicted of murder and sentenced to 30 years behind bars.
At the time of his conviction, Fricano weighed 120 kgs (260 lbs).
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However, just 12 months into his sentence, the killer tipped the scales at some 200 kgs (440 lbs).
As a result, he has been freed, instead serving the remainder of his term under house arrest in Biella, close to Milan.
According to prison officials, the diet at the prison is too high in fat and has put Fricano's health at risk.
It's been claimed that by the end of his stint behind bars he needed a wheelchair to get around.
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At the time of the murder itself, he told the police that Erika had actually been murdered by robbers.
However, Fricano later admitted he killed her following a huge argument about him leaving crumbs when he ate.
He said she struck him with a paperweight, after which he grabbed a knife and stabbed her multiple times.
"She insulted me for the bread and then hit me in the head," he said. "So I killed her."
A year on from the decision to put him in prison, judges have now ruled that he should be released for his own safety.
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"He needs assistance that cannot be provided in the institution," they said.
Unsurprisingly, the decision has not gone down well with Erika's family, who are devastated.
Her dad Fabrizio Preti says he's been assured Fricano will be sent back to prison when his condition improves... though he is doubtful this will ever happen.
"The house arrest for Dimitri? It's a shameful decision.
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"No one will give me back my little girl. But for us, the pain is still too strong for him to be released so soon.
"Time, they say, heals wounds, but not those of two parents who has had a daughter taken away.
"When some friends let me know, after reading it online, that Dimitri had been placed under house arrest, a wound reopened. It was like receiving a stab to the heart.
"His is a rare case. To think that not even the mafiosi receive this treatment."