Rome, May 29 (IANS/AKI) A 17-year-old youth in Italy repeatedly stabbed his 15-year-old girlfriend, doused her with petrol and set her ablaze, thinking she had "betrayed" him when the girl refused to have sex with him.
The youth, named only as D.M., told police he stabbed his girlfriend several times in the abdomen during a quarrel after school in Corigliano Calabro village.
The boy then went and bought a can of petrol, returned to the field where the seriously injured girl lay bleeding, splashed the petrol over her and lit a match.
"She attacked me, called me a bastard, begged me for mercy," D.M. told police.
The boy claimed the girl refused to have sex with him and that he suspected she had "betrayed" him.
He said he threw away the girl's school backpack and mobile phone in a field and then roamed around the neighbourhood.
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"Now I am tired, and I just want to sleep," he told police, showing no apparent remorse over the brutal murder.
The youth was arrested after he went to a hospital for treatment to burns to his face.
He confessed to police and directed them to the girl's charred corpse near an abandoned farm building, where the couple had gone on D.M.'s scooter.
Earlier, the girl's father had reported her disappearance to police.
He said he had ordered his daughter to end the relationship after D.M. physically assaulted her on an earlier occasion.
--IANS/AKI
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