Trio of "Garlic Noses" Running "Circus of Horrors" Imprisoned Women, Forcing One To Lie With Snakes and Tarantulas, the Other to Swim with Piranhas

[Pretend I came up with some stupid-clever way to link this to liberalism in a snarky one-liner.]

Police have closed down a circus in southern Italy after a terrified 19-year-old woman was forced to swim in a tank full of piranha fish while her younger sister endured the company of snakes and tarantulas.

Three men have been arrested and charged with holding the Bulgarian women in slavery and breaching international human rights conventions.

The trio, who are accused of running a "circus of horrors", were named as Enrico Raffaele Ingrassia, 57, the owner; his son William Ingrassia, 33; and his son-in-law, Gaetano Belfiore, 25.

...

Mr Ingrassia's daughter, who was not named, told police that a Bulgarian couple and their two daughters, aged 19 and 16, had been held as slaves "in a state of fear" since January.

They were forced to work 15 to 20 hours a day for €100 (£78) a week instead of the promised €480, with €380 deducted as "expenses for their upkeep".

An appalled spectator tipped off the police after seeing the show, in which Giusi, the 19-year-old, tried to escape from the piranha tank "trembling with terror". Her head was held down by Mr Ingrassia.

Her sister, Olga, 16, was bitten by snakes that she was forced to drape on her body, and she had injuries to her stomach where the snakes had wound themselves too tightly around her. The circus owners had rubbed ointment on snake bites on her legs but had refused to take her to a doctor.

...

Livio Togni — a former left-wing senator whose family ran Italy's best-known circus for generations — said: "I've never in my life heard anything like this. There is a strong sense of solidarity in the circus world, and violence is not part of it".

Oh there you go. Tenuous connection made.

You'll want to click on the whole story. I've given you the most sensational bits but every paragraph is chock-filled with horrors to rival the bloody battle of Tuzla.

Thanks to Mark "The Sniper" Seavey, a genuine American Hero.

And thanks to MAHJAM for suggesting the "Garlic Noses" thing.

Piranhas &bodytext=[Pretend I came up with some stupid-clever way to link this to liberalism in a snarky one-liner.] Police have closed down a circus in southern Italy after a terrified 19-year-old woman was forced to swim in a tank full of...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 04:30 PM

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