A judge in the southern Italian city of Naples on Wednesday sentenced a man to 18 years in prison for setting his former girlfriend on fire when she was eight months pregnant with his child.
Paolo Pietropaolo, 41 was ordered to pay a provisional sum of 300,000 euros compensation to his 38-year-old ex-girlfriend Carla Caiazzo including 50,000 for their daughter, who is now nine months old.
The judge barred Pietropaolo for life from holding public office and removed his parenting rights over his and Caiazzo's baby daughter.
Pietropaolo was jailed after a fast-track trial in which he was accused of the attempted murder of 38-year-old Carla Caiazzo on 1 February and of stalking her.
Caizzo gave birth to their daughter in an emergency Caesarian section immediately after the attack, which left Caizzo disfigured by the extensive burns she received to her face and body.
Caizzo, who has undergone 21 plastic surgery operations, was not well enough to attend court for Pietropaolo's sentencing.
Earlier this month Caizzo wrote to Italy's president Sergio Mattarella requesting that "cancelling a person's identity" be made a crime.
"My attacker killed me, leaving me alive," read Caizzo's letter to Mattarella.
"I and others like me are victims of those who wanted to annihilate us by destroying and disfiguring our faces or what makes us recognisable to ourselves and to society."
Prosecutors had asked for a 15-year jail term for Pietropaolo, who Caizzo had left after a brief and turbulent relationship.
