Rome Letter/Paddy Agnew: In the early hours of Thursday morning last week, Prof Elio Fanara of Messina University got out of his bed, went out on to the fourth-floor balcony of his apartment in central Messina and jumped to his death.
The 64-year-old professor's suicide represented the tragic epilogue to a tale involving accusations of mobbing and sexual molestation, a tale that casts a familiar, grim shadow over Italy's university system.
On the day that he killed himself, Prof Fanara had been suspended from his duties at the university, where he headed the its centre of transport studies. Under investigation by two Messina public prosecutors, Francesco di Giorgio and Alfonso Cavallo, on charges of "sexual violence" and "extortion", Prof Fanara had been put under house arrest just a few days previously.
The final chapter in his story began early last year when one of his students went to the public prosecutor's office, armed with a series of incriminating tape recordings. The student in question, Alessandra Siciliano, daughter of a magistrate, along with two other students had previously lodged formal complaints about Prof Fanara with the rector of Messina University, Gaetano Silvestri.
In the dossier sent to the rector, the students had complained about Prof Fanara's highly unorthodox didactic approach, writing: "Among those duties assigned to the students there was that of photo-copying books . . . Furthermore, we were asked to write and then post a huge number of letters relative to private matters of Prof Fanara and his family. . . Basically, we were treated as slaves, totally at the service of the padrone."
Furthermore, complained the students, they were required not only to do the professor's laundry but also to bottle and package his Christmas gifts of limoncello and torroni (sweetmeats).
By way of response to that complaint, all three students were expelled from Prof Fanara's course, following a decision taken by the National College of (University) Teachers in December 2002 which ruled that their academic results were "inadequate".
Less than happy with that ruling, Alessandra Siciliano then took her case to the state judiciary, where she was told that any accusations she might make against the professor would have to be substantiated. Otherwise it would be a question of the professor's word against hers.
At that point, Ms Siciliano then set about gathering "evidence". She got in contact with as many women as she could trace who had studied at Prof Fanara's centre. Between one chat and another, with her tape recorder registering everything, she put together an imposing dossier of accusations. Not only did four other women students confirm her original accusations about letter-writing and gift-packaging, but many of them also claimed that the professor had made improper sexual advances. All of them agreed that "it was impossible not to go along with his requests if you wanted to stay on the course".
Lest any of her fellow students prove reluctant to confirm these accusations, Ms Siciliano then took her tape recordings to the public prosecutor's office. At that point, the investigation into Prof Fanara began, resulting in his house arrest last week.
Asked to comment on the news of his suicide last week, the two prosecutors, di Giorgio and Cavallo, told reporters: "We're naturally saddened by his death but we are not worried because we carried out our investigation very carefully, and our accusatory thesis was then assessed by the GIP's office (preliminary investigation) which ordered Prof Fanara's house arrest . . ."
Perhaps the accusations against the late Prof Fanara were indeed, as he claimed, merely a whole "fabrication". In letters left to his wife and to the university rector, he wrote that he would "continue his battle" from beyond the grave. Perhaps he will.
However, there are those who argue both that Prof Fanara had serious charges to answer and also that, in the world of Italian academia, his was no isolated case.
A union representative at Messina University, Daniele David, put it this way: "That the students were called on to do chores which had nothing to do with the research work they were supposed to do, was clear. But that happens in other (educational) institutes. All you have to do is investigate and you'll find stories of professors stealing their students' research work and doing all sorts of other things typical of situations in which there is a total imbalance of power . . ."