CLEARED OF SEX CRIMES AFTER MY 2-YEAR HELL IN IRISH JAIL
Innocent Italian was locked up with ‘maniacs and murderers’
AN Italian man extradited to Ireland to face sex charges only to be unanimously acquitted by a jury has spoken about his time ‘in hell’ while he was in custody awaiting trial.
Lorenzo Osmari spent two years on remand in the Midlands Prison in Portlaoise while waiting on his trial on rape and sexual assault charges.
The 58-year-old was locked up with prisoners like murderer Graham Dwyer and rapist Michael Murray.
He said: “I shared a cell with maniacs and murderers, I couldn’t receive visits from my wife and children, not even their letters.”
The goldsmith is legally entitled to anonymity after a jury acquitted him of all charges following an 11-day trial last year – but he has decided to go public because he wants the world to know he is innocent.
“The Irish people were illuminated by divine light,” he said of the teenager who made allegations against him.
His ordeal began in 2018 when he was living in Nenagh in Co Tipperary, where he moved from Italy several years earlier – with a plan to get involved in the restaurant business.
A male later alleged to gardai Mr Osmari had abused him.
Officers began an investigation and Mr Osmari told us he had several conversations with gardai – even after he left Tipperary to head back to his native Colleferro, a village south east of Rome.
He thought things were dying down – until Italian detectives tricked him into coming into the local station in May 2021.
They asked him to come in for a supposedly routine administrative query – only for him to be arrested as soon as he walked in the door.
Officers detained him on foot a
European Arrest Warrant issued by the High Court in Dublin – and he was later extradited to Ireland to stand trial.
He was then charged with four counts of sexual assault and one of rape – and was locked up in the Midlands Prison until he went on trial in May last year.
The Midlands has its own sex offenders wing and Mr Osmari says he was locked up among them and killers while he waited for his trial to begin.
And he reveals how he was constantly attacked behind bars.
“The attacks were daily. It was a battle from breakfast in the morning to dinner in the evening.
“There were bullies everywhere. “How do you survive such an experience? I have a black belt in karate, this saved me.
“Defining them as mistreatment is truly a trivial thing.”
Mr Osmari went on trial in May last year at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Limerick and after his 11-day case, the jury took just three hours and 43 minutes to acquit him of all charges – and he was released.
He said: “After 11 days of hearings and debate during which I had seen the sun enter through the skylights behind me and illuminate all the jurors in turn on the day of the final verdict the sunlight entered through the skylights in front of me, subverting every law of physics.
“It enlightened me for the entire time during which the jurors had to make the decision whether guilty or not guilty, my translator began to cry, saying that I had been illuminated by divine light.”
Mr Osmari said that he never feared being convicted.
He said: “I have never feared being convicted because I was innocent.
“Even during the two years of imprisonment I was always calm despite the mistreatment I suffered in prison.”
And he said he believes he is not the only innocent man that has been locked up in the Midlands Prison.
He added: “In the Midlands Prison there are many young boys who have been prosecuted without reason or with fabricated evidence.”
Reflecting on other time on remand, Mr Osmari spoke of his admiration for rapist Michael Murray, who was this week given a two-year jail term for making threats to Justice Minister Helen Mcentee from the prison.
Mr Osmari said: “I met him, a good person, correct and respectful.
“He was always courteous and generous in sharing the food they gave him.”
I did not fear being convicted I knew I was innocent LORENZO OSMARI AFTER HIS ORDEAL