VENICE - A student who admitted murdering his ex-girlfriend in a brutal case that sparked outrage and soul searching in Italy was sentenced to life in prison on Dec 3.

Prosecutors had requested Italy’s harshest penalty for Filippo Turetta, 22, over the killing of Ms Giulia Cecchettin in November 2023, just days before she was due to graduate from the University of Padua.

Ms Cecchettin, also 22, was stabbed at least 75 times in a shocking murder that prompted protests over violence against women across Italy.

Outside court, Ms Cecchettin’s father, Gino, said the sentence had not advanced the cause.

“I think gender violence shouldn’t be fought with sentences but with prevention, teaching concepts that maybe are still a bit far off,” Mr Cecchettin told reporters.

“As a father, nothing has changed versus yesterday or a year ago.”

The reading of the sentence, which was broadcast live on Italian television, elicited no visible reaction from Turetta.

His lawyer Giovanni Caruso had called the request for life imprisonment excessive, saying his client was “not Pablo Escobar”, the notorious Colombian drug baron.

When the trial opened in September, Mr Caruso warned against a “media trial” and last week insisted there were no “aggravating circumstances” such as cruelty or premeditation.

But prosecutor Andrea Petroni said Turetta acted with “particular brutality”, attacking Ms Cecchettin before fleeing with her in his car.

Her body was found a week after she went missing in a gully near Lake Barcis, north of Venice.

Turetta was arrested a day later near Leipzig in Germany after his car ran out of petrol.

Mr Gino Cecchettin said last week that nothing would bring his daughter back, but his goa...